BJP MP Udit Raj had attended 'questionable' Mahishasur festival

BJP MP Udit Raj had attended the Mahishasura festival at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), an event which HRD Minister Smriti Irani on Tuesday said was an example of questionable activities by students on the campus, reports The Telegraph.

Udit Raj did not deny his presence at the event which took place in October 2013. "I attended the Mahishasura festival because I believe that caste discrimination is bad. I consider Mahishasur as a martyr. Dr BR Ambedkar had also considered him as a martyr,” I was not a part of the BJP at that time. I follow the ideology of Dr BR Ambedkar, who considered Mahishasur as a Messiah of Dalits, how can I go against him,” he said to ABP News.  

"I was an activist that time, I changed. Only fools and dead men don't change their views," he said to ANI.

The Mahishasura festival has been taking place in the JNU campus in the month of October since 2011. It started after Dalit writer Prem Kumar Mani wrote an article which had references considered objectionable by some sections of the society.

The festival is held to pay a tribute to the 'demon' king  who was slained by Goddess Durga. Backward communities worship Mahishasura and believe that gods conspired to kill the king as he belonged to a backward caste and posed a threat to Brahminical dominance.