The Vishwa Gita Sansthan, which is associated with the VHP, has sought appointments with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Ramnath Kovind and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan with a request to name the Gita the national book of India.
The organization is also planning to distribute the Gita door to door.
“We have done programmes in Mathura-Brindawan and some other places. We have already distributed about 4000 copies of the Bhagwad Gita,” Saurabh Tripathi, national spokesperson and secretary of the Vishwa Gita Sansthan, told Outlook.
Asked whether the organisation would also want the Gita to be taught in minority educational institutions, Tripathi said that the organization was not looking at forcing anyone to read the Gita and was also seeing the Gita not as a religious text but as a text that lays down ideal human conduct.
“We don’t see the Gita as a religious text. It is a text that deals with human duties and human conduct and is relevant for humanity as a whole. There was a school competition on the Gita some years back and a Muslim girl won the first prize. It is relevant for everyone,” Tripathi said. “However, there may be some objections from some quarters and we don’t intend to force our views on anyone. We are just recommending the path to a better society.”
A release by the organization says that all teachers should read the Gita so as to become conscious of their duties towards students and society. It adds that government departments should also organize a ‘Gita pakhwara’ where all chapters of the Gita should be read so that government officials become more conscious of their duties as public servants.
“We are confident that in order to reestablish the glory of Vishwa Guru Bharat, the government will take proper steps to honour our demands,” the release, in Hindi, says.
