ALLAHABAD: Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati has lambasted chief minister Yogi Adityanath and the ruling Bhartiya Janta Party ( BJP ) as a whole over the controversial statement made by the CM on Lord Hanuman The CM had on Wednesday claimed that the Hindu deity Hanuman belonged to the Dalits and tribal communities. He made this statement during a political rally in Rajasthan.Yogi, while campaigning in the Malpura constituency had said, “Hanuman was a tribal, a forest dweller and was deprived. Bajrang Bali worked to connect all Indian communities together, from north to south and east to west. This was his resolve as it was Lord Ram’s wish. Just like him, we should also not rest till we fulfil that wish."Adityanath had also said that only those worship Ravana would vote for the Congress, he had added.Swaroopanand Saraswati said,“Lord Hanuman was the incarnation of Shiva who had left his form of ‘Rudra’ to help Lord Rama and the Bhagwat Puraan also mentions that Shiva and Vishnu are one, if they are calling Hanuman as Dalit, the BJP and the RSS as well should be taught about Hinduism”.On being asked to comment on the issue of state government announcing revamping of the Ramlila Ground in 10 districts of the state, Swaroopanand said, “This is just a political gimmick and making fool of the voters of the state. The state of the these Ramlila grounds is already quite satisfactory, what will they revamp.“Instead, the state government should answer on their act of removing the ancient Shiv Linga found in numerous old temples of Kashi, who should be held responsible for this act”, he questioned.On being asked to comment on the changing of names of cities in the state, the Shankaracharya said, “This is nothing but an attempt to befool the public, they have changed the name of Allahabad and Mugal Sarai and when we demanded that the airport at Dehradun should be named after Bhagwan Shankaracharya, the government has decided to name it on former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

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