Receiving the life time achievement award for social justice, prominent politician and Lok Sabha MP Sharad Yadav said that the day people would get rid of their caste and class, a revolution would take place in India. Caste and class is the biggest disease of this country. Caste is such deep-rooted into the Indian society that people cannot get rid of it simply. Social disparity cannot end unless caste system is put to an end. We adopted caste like dirty things.
He said this after receiving the award at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi on 8 July. He also released the book Hindutva-mukt Bharat (Hindutva-Free India) written by Prof. Kancha Ilaiha Shepherd, Director, Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy.
Expressing grave concern over the present situation in the country, Yadav, former National President of Janta Dal United (JDU), said the situation is serious and strange. In the last 70 years, there was no such dangerous situation in the country. This is because of caste and religion. Bengal, which was far from caste and religious division, is being divided now. Communal riots and religious division have trapped the country.
Explaining why he wants India free from Hindutva, Kanch Ilaiha, the author of the book, said according to him, Hindutva is a system of inequality, Brahmanism, pure vegetarianism and anti-national. And it is anti-human too.
Speaking on cow and beef, Ilaiha said that earlier they were shouting a slogan, Bharat Mata Ki Jai but it was not clear who was Bharat Mata (Mother India). Today they are saying the cow is Bharat Mata, was there any cow in Hadappa civilization? There was no cow but buffalo was there. Nation is not cow but the nation is people. He said this is not the country of vegetarianism but meatrianism. He urged people to be non-vegetarianism for good health and energy. He also explained the health benefits of non-vegetarianism.
He also urged the backward classes of the country to overcome fear complexion and inferior complexity and said that they should not think that Brahmans are superior to them. They should get better in education and they should also write their history in their own perspective.
Apart from Sharad Yadav, five youths Sumeet Samos, Shaweta Yadav, Alok Kumar, Dharamveer and Zubair Alam also have been given appreciation award for their work on social justice. This award has been started this year and Sharad Yadav is the first recipient of the award.