When maverick BJP intellectual and former Harvard Professor Dr Subramanian Swamy announces that Ravana and his wife were dalits from Ghaziabad, V Gangadhar feels it was time to investigate.
Controversy and confusing statements go hand in hand with Dr Subramanian Swamy, Harvard professor, now a prominent BJP leader. Let me admit at the outset that I do not know much about Ghaziabad town in Uttar Pradesh. But being part of UP, it must be in the communal Belt region. But today the town is well lit, bright and the people are in a festive mood.
When I visited the town some days back, it was still very much in a festive mood. In fact, people were busy, proud and happy that Ghaziabad was in the process of erecting a statue of BJP leader, Dr Subramanian Swamy and a Harvard academician. The main contribution of Dr Swamy was to make outrageous statements on issues of which he knew nothing about while appearing in TV debates. He is naturally on the TV from one channel or the other almost daily. On other occasions he is suing people for alleged defamation or himself facing defamation suits filed by politicians from other parties. Yes, sir, Dr Swamy is always in the news for which the people of Ghaziabad are thankful and are building his statue in the heart of the town.
Dr Swamy is a widely learned scholar of repute and holds decisive opinions on (there is none to challenge to him) every topic on earth. Hence it was no surprise he explained at a Benaras Hindu University Seminar that history books now taught in schools contained nothing but rubbish and the Central government should now order a thorough clean-up of the books and order massive changes.
Quoting quite a few instances to support his cause, Dr Swamy announced an eye-popping discovery that Ravan, the ten-headed villain of the ‘Ramayan’ and his ‘pativrata’ wife mandodari were actually Dalits from UP. Ravan was a native of Basrakh near Ghaziabad while Mandodari was from Meerut region. According to Dr Swamy, Ravan was a pious follower of ‘Hindutva’ and a ‘Shiv Bakht’ with whose help he dethroned Lord Kuber and seized Sri Lanka. What prompted Ravana to abduct Sita Mata was being investigated according to Dr Subramanian Swamy.
Since Dr Swamy is a controversial figure, his conclusions on Ravan and Mandodari may not go well with sections of the BJP. Gujarati and Marwari scions of the BJP, flush with funds will not agree with Swamy’s contentions that Ravana dethroned Lord Kubera with the help of Lord Shiv. There is a feeling that Dr Swamy was deliberately padding the achievements of Shiv Bhagwan who was in fact the father of Lord Subramanian, deified all over the country Such statements from Swami, an important leader of the BJP, it is feared, will also delay the process of rapprochement between the BJP and the Dravidian parties with whom the BJP was trying to mend fences.
Ghaziabad was itself divided. The powerful Brahmin sections were quite happy with the Swami discovery but the rest of the population will not so readily accept Lord Shiva’s role in the entire affair. It is rather difficult to perceive how the orthodox members of the BJP will accept Lord Shiva’s aggressive role in pushing Ravana to replace one of the Devas, Kuber, in coming to power in Sri Lanka
Finally, there is the big question. How will the History books on these issues be rewritten by Hindu pandits and okayed by HRD Minister Smriti Irani who was a big zero in history, Hindu mythology and every other subject. Anyway, that will be yet another issue to be solved by Prime Minister Modiji.
(V Gangadhar writes satire, a special form of humour. Incidents and anecdotes in his column are
purely imaginary)
