Union Minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar on Thursday said that CPM's Speaker AN Shamseer had "no right" to comment on Hindu beliefs and the BJP did not need the CPM's "expert comments". Shamsheer had set off a debate by stating that Hindutva ideologues promoted that myths instead of science in schools.
"CPM Pinarayi Vijayan's close aide and Speaker Shamseeer recently made some derogatory remarks on Hindu God Ganesha. The Kerala public and our party members have said that they should apologise," Chandrashekhar said. "He's CPM's speaker and he has no right to pass a remark on Hindu belief. We don't need their expert comments. It's a misconception that Hindus there will tolerate anything."
What Shamseer said
At a school programme in Ernakulam on July 21, Shamseer said science should be promoted instead of "myths". When asked to clarify what according to him a myth was, Shamseer said that the Wright brothers were the inventors of the airplane. However, the Hindutva ideologues belived that the Pushpak Vimana was the first airplane. He also cited Prime Miinster Narendra Modi's 2014 speech that mentioned: “We worship Lord Ganesha. There must have been some plastic surgeon at that time who got an elephant’s head on the body of a human being and began the practice of plastic surgery.”
According to Shamseer, the Hindutva ideologues had been promoting "such myths" instead of science.
Outrage over Shamseer's comments
The BJP Thiruvananthapura district vice president filed a complaint against Shamseer for insulting Hindu beliefs. The Nair Service Society (NSS) also condemned Shamseer's statement and demanded the CPM to take action and apologise.
“People of the Hindu faith have lived in harmony with other religions in Kerala. When a person belonging to another community criticises our community, we cannot sit back. We will work against this with RSS and BJP if the need arises. This is about our belief system,” NSS general secretary Sukumaran Nair said on Wednesday.
CPM backs Shamseer
CPM state secretary MV Govindan supported Shamseer and accused the BJP of creating "unwanted controversy" over the CPM speaker's remarks.
“India is a democracy and as per the constitution, any believer, whether he is a Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Parsi or Sikh or even if he is an atheist, everyone has equal rights," he said.
When asked whether he thought Lord Ganesha was a myth, Govindan replied, "Is Ganapati science then? Let us look at myths as myths only. ... We are not against believers.”
However, when he was asked if Allah was a myth, Govindan said, "What I said was that all beliefs of believers are not a myth. There are plenty of myths, like I said, the formation of Kerala is also one. Believers can follow their beliefs. They could consider things divine that are presented as divine. We don’t question it. There are myths and those that are not."
