"Yadavs are not Hindus": Samajwadi Leader's Comment Raises Eyebrows

Shivraj Singh Yadav, a leader of Samajwadi Party and a close aide of party chief Akhilesh Yadav, sparked a huge controversy with his remark that "Yadavs are not Hindus". "I do not follow a religion that treats a human being as lower than a dog," he said, criticising the traditional caste system that makes "Shudra" the lowest in the caste hierarchy. 

Speaking at a public meeting titled "PDA (Dalit-Backward-Minority) pathshala" at Dandiyamai village of the Sirsaganj assembly constituency, Yadav declared that the community is not part of Hindus and questioned the caste division under the ancient Hindu scripture Manusmriti. 

"Brahmin, we are not. Kshatriya, we are not. Vaishya, we are not. Now, which one is left? Shudra," he said. 

"So if we are Hindus, I'm just saying, because being Hindu is not mandatory. Like I say on every platform, I am not Hindu. I am Shivraj Singh Yadav and I am a human. I am not Hindu. Because the religion that makes a human lower than a dog, I don't follow that religion at all, never," he added.

The current government, he alleged, has perpetrated the most atrocities against Dalits and backward classes. 

Explaining the concept of "PDA", he said despite comprising nearly 90 per cent of the country's population, the Dalit-Backward-Minority community is excluded from power, and a limited group controls the system. 

Revocation of Hinduism has been a recurrent theme in the Dalit community, many of whom have converted to Buddhism drawn by its egalitarian concept. But so far, few Yadav leaders have declared themselves are non-Hindu. 

The Samajwadi Party, along with the Opposition, has been reiterating that the BJP government at the state and the Centre has been anti-Dalit. Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has repeatedly attacked the BJP, accusing it of presiding over a surge of atrocities against the Dalits.