"He should leave India": Hindu seers express displeasure over Samajwadi Party leader Maurya's remarks on Ramcharitmanas
Jan 27, 2023
Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh) [India], January 27 : Denouncing the slanderous remarks of Samajwadi Party MLC Swami Prasad Maurya over Ramcharitmanas, Hindu seers in Magh Mela in Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj demanded the government to take stringent action against the Samajwadi Party leader.
"Ramcharitmanas is the heart of Sanatan culture and civilization. It is very indecent to comment on such a holy book, which teaches us the art of living life, which teaches our society to move forward, and is our heart," Jagadguru Agamacharya said on Thursday. 
He added that if Maurya does not have faith in the most revered Lord Shri Ram or Ramcharitmanas, he should leave the country. And I will also demand from the government that the person with such a mentality should be immediately declared a traitor.
"The comment made by Maurya against the respect and self-respect of Brahmins is highly condemnable, I demand the government that Swami Prasad Maurya gets the strictest punishment for his statement," another Hindu seer told ANI.
Earlier on Thursday, daughter of Samajwadi Party MLC Swami Prasad Maurya and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Sanghamitra Maurya reacted to her father's controversial remark on Ramcharitmanas and said that it should be discussed and not objected to.
"See, I think that the comment is not a matter of controversy or debate but a matter of discussion. Whosoever has reverence for Lord Rama and whosoever has read Ramcharitmanas, all of them have quoted that line from time to time. Today my father did the same," Sanghamitra Maurya told ANI.
Earlier this month, the Samajwadi Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya sparked a major controversy after he demanded the deletion of "insulting comments and sarcasm" targeted at particular castes and sects in Ramcharitmanas, a poem based on the epic Ramayana.
Speaking to ANI, the SP leader said, "I don't have any issue with Ramcharitramanas but parts of it have insulting comments and sarcasm directed at particular castes and sects. Those should be removed."
Maurya's remarks gave fresh ammunition to the BJP with its own party chief Akhilesh Yadav distancing himself from the controversial remarks.
Apart from Akhilesh Yadav, several MLAs of the party are also keeping themselves away from the statement of Maurya.
