Ramcharitmanas Row: 'Swami Prasad Maurya Should Embrace Islam, ask Daughter to Resign as MP', Says BJP's Ravindra Kushawaha

Ballia: BJP Lok Sabha MP from Salempur Ravindra Kushawaha on Friday said senior Samajwadi Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya should embrace Islam and ask his daughter and BJP MP Sanghamitra to resign from Lok Sabha. Maurya, a prominent OBC leader in Uttar Pradesh, kicked up controversy recently by alleging that certain verses of the Ramcharitmanas "insult" a large section of society on the basis of caste and demanded that these be "banned".

"If SP leader Swami Prasad Maurya has some morality, he should immediately accept Islam, and his entire family should follow. Being a Hindu, Maurya is making objectionable comments about Ramcharitmanas. People belonging to the Sanatan Dharma will not accept this," Kushawaha told reporters in Ballia. "He is making frivolous statements against Hinduism, while opposing the BJP. Hindus will not accept this act," he added.

Sanghamitra Maurya, a BJP MP from Budaun, on Wednesday, came in support of her father and said there should be a debate on some portions of the Hindu epic. The "chaupai (verse)" of the Ramcharitmanas her father called objectionable should be discussed with scholars, she added. "On moral grounds, Maurya should also ask his daughter, who is a Lok Sabha MP, to resign immediately," Kushawaha said.