Guna (Madhya Pradesh): Upset over the remarks of poet Munawwar Rana scores of Valmiki community members staged protest against Rana here in Guna and demanded FIR against him.
They accused the poet of hurting religious feelings by talking about Maharishi Valmiki, who wrote Ramayana and dreaded Taliban in same breath.
They submitted a memorandum to the district administration in addressed to the President under the leadership of senior member of Valmiki Samaj and state minister of BJP Scheduled Caste Morcha Sunil Malviya.
They demanded that an FIR be registered an FIR against Rana for hurting religious sentiments.
Rana while talking to a channel had said: “Valmiki became a God after he wrote the Ramayana, before that he was a dacoit. A person's character can change. Similarly, the Taliban, for now, are terrorists but people and characters change."
“When you talk about Valmiki, you will have to talk about his past. In your religion, you make anyone god. But he was a writer and he wrote the Ramayana, but we are not in competition here,” Rana had said.
This is not the first time when Rana has courted controversy. In November 2020, an FIR was registered against the poet at Hazratganj police station in Lucknow for allegedly defending the killings in France over a caricature of Prophet Muhammad.
Ex-MLA and municipality president Rajendra Singh Saluja, former BJP district president Radheshyam Parikh and a large number of members of Valmiki Samaj and BJP people were present.
