‘Unacceptable’: Congress distances itself from Shivraj Patil’s jihad remarks
The Congress on Friday dissociated itself from veteran leader Shivraj Patil’s remark that the concept of jihad exists not just in Islam but also in the Bhagavad Gita and Christianity. The party said the remark was unacceptable.
Patil tried to wriggle out of the controversy by denying what he had said. Speaking at the launch of Congress leader and former Union minister Mohsina Kidwai’s biography on Thursday, Patil said it was said there was much discussion about jihad in Islam and that the concept “comes to the fore when despite having the right intentions and doing the right thing, nobody understands or reciprocates, then it is said one can use force”.
“And that is not just in Quran sharif… in Mahabharata also, the part in Gita, Shri Krishna also talks of jihad to Arjun and it is not that this thing is just in Quran or Gita it is also in Christian writings….which means that even after trying to make (someone) understand…they are not understanding…and they are coming with weapons then you cannot run, you cannot call that jihad and you cannot call it wrong also, this is what must be understood, there should not be this concept of making people understand with weapons in hand,” he said.
Seeking to clarify his remarks, the former home minister said Friday that if someone who spoke the truth was killed, it would be jihad even in the Hindu religion. “If you kill Mahatma Gandhi, it is jihad. Why was Mahatma Gandhi killed?…I will call it jihad…not jihadi…I will call that act jihad,” he told ANI. “It is you who is calling it jihad. I was saying, would you call jihad what Shri Krishna told Arjuna to do? No. That is what I said.”
As his remarks created a political furore with the BJP attacking the Congress, the Opposition party’s communication head, Jairam Ramesh, said, “My senior colleague Shivraj Patil reportedly made some comments on the Bhagavad Gita. That’s unacceptable. Subsequently, he clarified. The Congress’s stand is clear. The Bhagavad Gita is a key foundational pillar of Indian civilisation.”
Ramesh also put out an excerpt from Jawaharlal Nehru’s book The Discovery of India, where the first prime minister talks about the message of the Gita.
