PATNA: Padma awardee Daya Prakash Sinha's controversial statement against Mauryan emperor Ashoka the great, spilled over into a verbal duel between the two ruling alliance partners of the NDA--the Janata Dal United (JD-U) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
JD-U national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh urged the President Ramnath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the central government to withdraw 'Padma Shri' award conferred on to a noted theatre artist and writer Daya Prakash Sinha.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, JD-U MP from Munger said the unsavoury remarks against Mauryan emperor Ashoka the great was unbearable and unpardonable.
“This shows perverted mentality of the man in question,” the JDU national chief said.
Singh, a close confidante of chief minister Nitish Kumar, described it a deliberate attempt by Sinha to distort the ancient Indian history. “Ashoka, who ruled over undivided 'Bharat' and expanded its geographical limits, was not only one of the great emperors but also among the creators of ancient India.”
Earlier, JD-U's parliamentary board chairman and former union minister Upendra Kushwaha had raised serious objection over remarks of Daya Prakash Sinha in an interview recently. Sinha, national convenor of the BJP's culture cell, was rewarded Padma Shri for his contribution in the field of art and culture.
Sinha in his interview drew a parallel between Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and Mauryan ruler Ashoka. Sinha said Ashoka had adopted non-violence only after his victory in the Kalinga war loathed in blood, apparently in the manner Aurangzeb did. “Ashoka hid his sins by showing his great severance for religion (Buddhism),” the Padwa awardee was quoted as saying.
What irked the saffron party is that the JD-U leaders asked the party to which Daya Shankar Prasad Sinha was associated with, to take disciplinary action for his controversy remarks. BJP Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi, however, denied that Sinha was an office bearer of the party.
Without mentioning the names of JD-U leaders, BJP state president Dr. Sanjay Jaiswal said, “Some people think themselves as highly intellectual.” He also called those leaders as 'Bhashmasur'.
Later what can be called a damage control exercise, BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand said, “Attempt to characterize the great hero of the Shakya community by comparing emperor Ashoka with Aurangzeb is unfortunate.”