• Adityanath had said, "Hanuman was a forest dweller, deprived and a Dalit"

  • BJP MP Savitribai Phule on December 4 said Lord Hanuman was a slave to manuvadi people

  • A Jain priest in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, claimed Lord Hanuman was neither a Dalit nor a tribal, but a Jain

New Delhi, Dec 20: Lord Hanuman would never have been remembered by the Indians as much as now - in the run up to the general election next year. What began as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath suggesting the deity was a deprived and probably, a Dalit has now snowballed into a saga of unending innuendos.

A certain Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader has now said that Lord Hanuman was a Muslim.

"Humaara maanna hai ki Hanumanji musalmaan thhay. Issliye musalmaanon mein naam rakha jaata hai Rehman, Ramzam, Farman, Zeeshan, Qurbaan. Saare naam kareeb kareeb unke naam se miltey hain [We believe Lord Hanuman was a Muslim. That's why all the Muslim names are derived from his name]," BJP MLC Bukkal Nawab was quoted as saying by ANI.

This is the third religious identity given to Lord Hanuman ever since Adityanath did the honour.

Adityanath had, during a poll rally in Malakheda of Alwar district last month, said, "Hanuman was a forest dweller, deprived and a Dalit. Bajrang Bali worked to connect all Indian communities together, from north to south and east to west."

BJP MP Savitribai Phule on December 4 said Lord Hanuman was a Dalit and slave to manuwadi people. Manuvad comes from the term Manuvada, which denotes the culture of a society governed by Manusmriti code of conduct for human society.

Lord Hanuman was a Dalit and a slave of 'manuwadi' people. He was a Dalit and a human. He did all for Lord Ram then why he was given a tail and his face was blackened, she said.

By claiming that Hanuman as a slave to manuwadi people, Phule took a step ahead of Adityanath and referred to him as a tribal.

Rajasthan Sarv Brahmin Mahasabha president Suresh Mishra then sent a notice to Adityanath, accusing him of dragging Lord Hanuman's caste for political gain for the BJP in the then poll-bound state.

Following this, a Jain priest in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, claimed Lord Hanuman was neither a Dalit nor a tribal, but a Jain.

Aacharya Nirbhay Sagar Maharaj, who heads a Jain temple in Samasgarh, nearly 25 km from Bhopal, said according to Jain scriptures, Lord Hanuman was a Jain. He was part of the 169 great persons identified in Jainism.

The Congress party even launched a salvo at the BJP through a poster.

The poster was divided into three parts, out of which the second part showed Lord Hanuman coming out of the BJP office, which issues caste certificates, with -- wait for it -- a Dalit certificate.

And with Nawab's recent statement, it looks like this indigenous battle of dividing Gods and Goddesses on the basis of castes is not going to end any time soon. It will only be furthered.

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Mumbai (PTI): Police have arrested a man and seized over 500 grams of heroin worth Rs 2.54 crore in the illicit market from him in Mumbai, officials said on Friday.

The police's Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) made the drug seizure in Santacruz in the western suburbs. The operation was conducted by the Kandivali unit of the ANC on Thursday as part of a special crackdown against drug trafficking in the area, they said.

Acting on specific inputs, an ANC team conducted a raid in Santacruz (East) and intercepted a man. During a search, the team recovered 508 grams of high-grade heroin from his possession, an official said.

The seized contraband, a highly addictive, opioid drug derived from morphine, is estimated to be worth Rs 2.54 crore in the international market, he informed.

Following the seizure, a case was registered against the man under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, and he was formally placed under arrest in the early hours of Friday.

The police are currently investigating the source of the drug and trying to identify the intended recipients of the consignment, he said.