Amidst the raging verbal duel between the BJP and the Congress over the latter’s Karnataka poll manifesto promising to ban the Bajrang Dal, a tribal Congress MLA of Madhya Pradesh has claimed that Bajrang Bali (Lord Hanuman) was an ‘Adivasi’.
Arjun Singh Kakodia called Lord Hanuman an adivasi while addressing a large public gathering and party workers’ meeting in the presence of MP Congress chief Kamal Nath and other leaders in village Udeypani in the Barghat area of Seoni district of MP.
Without naming the BJP or the Bajrang Dal, Kakodia averred that if anyone misuses Bajrang Bali’s name for their selfish interests, the adivasi people would not tolerate it.
“Our Bajrang Bali is an adivasi and our adivasi people will not forgive anyone who disrespects Bajrang Bali by using his name on the roads for fulfilling selfish motives,” Kakodia asserted.
“During Lord Ram’s vanvaas (forest sojourn) no army of the Brahmins or Kshatriyas or from Ayodhya went to help him. It is only the adivasis led by Bajrang Bali who helped Lord Ram,” Kakodia maintained.
He said Bajrang Bali is the deity of the aboriginal natives who are the adivasis.
Kakodia (66) is the sitting Congress MLA from the Scheduled Tribes reserved assembly seat of Barghat constituency in the Seoni district of MP.