New Delhi: After having ‘discovered’ jihad in the teaching of Lord Krishna to Arjuna in the Hindu holy scripture ‘Bhagwad Gita’, former Union home minister and senior Congress leader Shivraj Patil refuses to apologise on Friday.

The Congress leader had courted controversy on Thursday when speaking at a book launch in the national capital. Patil said that the concept of jihad or Islamic religious war was to be found in the Mahabharat, to be precise, in Gita.

For the unversed, ‘jihad’, an Islamic term means religious war.

When hit out by the BJP for his remarks and accused by the party for playing vote bank politics, Patil began to defend himself and kept repeating that he never said Lord Krishna taught ‘jihad’ to Arjuna.

But what did Shivraj Patil say about ‘jihad’ in Mahabharat?

Speaking at the launch of Congress veteran and former Union minister Mohsina Kidwai’s biography, on Thursday, Patil said that while there is a lot of discussion on ‘jihad’, it finds mention in the Quran as well as the Bhagwad Gita.

The event was also attended by Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Digvijay Singh, Farooq Abdullah among others.

In a video clip from the event shared by news agency ANI, Patil went on to say, “It is said that there’s a lot of discussion on ‘Jihad’ in Islam… Even after all efforts, if someone does not understand clean idea, power can be used, it is mentioned in Quran and Gita… Shri Krishna taught lessons of ‘jihad’ to Arjun in a part of Gita in Mahabharat.”

He further claimed that it is not just in Quran, but in Mahabharata also, “the part in Gita, Shri Krishna also talks of jihad to Arjun and this thing is not just in Quran or Gita but also in Christianity.

"If after explaining everything, people are not understanding, they are coming with weapons then you cannot run, you cannot call that jihad and you cannot call it wrong, this is what must be understood, there should not be this concept of making people understand with weapons in hand," The 87-year-old leader added.

BJP lashes out at Congress

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)strongly reacted to Patil's 'jihad' remarks. The party spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla in a tweet said, "After AAP’s Gopal Italia and Rajendra Pal, not to be outdone in Hindu hatred and votebank politics, Congress’ Shivraj Patil says Shri Krishna taught jihad to Arjun!"

"This Hindu hatred is not a sanyog but a Votebank ka Prayog - it is a deliberate ploy before Gujarat polls to polarise a votebank," he tweeted.

Hitting out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Poonawalla said, "Earlier 'Janeudhari' Rahul Gandhi also said things about Hindutva; said LeT less dangerous than Hindu groups; Digvijaya blamed 26/11 on Hindus."

Shivraj Patil’s political journey

Shivraj Patil served as the Union home minister from 2004 to 2008 and the 10th Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 1991 to 1996.

Patil was also Governor of the state of Punjab and Administrator of the Union Territory of Chandigarh from 2010 to 2015.

References:

firstpost.com