Bhubaneswar: Union MoS for MSME & Animal Husbandry and Balasore MP Pratap Chandra Sarangi, who is often considered a staunch nationalist, has claimed that the history of India that is portrayed before countrymen especially the school and college students is full of flaws and needs to be changed. Sarangi's comments came after attending an event in Cuttack.
"I believe the history that's written and is being picturised, is wrong. That needs to be changed as soon as possible," he said.
Sarangi further stated, "It is being said that Aryans And Dravidians are two different castes which came from outside and do not belong to India. There is no truth in this. The only motive behind such a scripting is to give a permanent picture to the British imperialism."
"Another glaring example is it is written that Hinduism and Sikhism are two different religions, which is incorrect. Guru Nanak himself was a Hindu who always followed Hindu paradigm and later worked for the progress of Sikh community. Similarly, India's history on language and literature has been implicated in an incorrect manner. I feel there are quite a few similarities between Northern and southern languages," claimed the MoS.
Sarangi later blamed it on the invaders for portraying a wrong image of India and its culture just to destroy the sense of patriotism. "Those who haven't even seen India and its art, culture, language, religion have written the history probably funded by the Britishers."
Meanwhile, Sarangi's comments have sparked a controversy, with BJD and Congress leaders blatantly opposing his statements.
"India had many great leaders in the pre-Independence era. That's not a stained history. That's a strong one and we are proud of it. It is better if Sarangi discusses about strong leaders like Prithviraj," commented senior Congress leader Sura Routray.
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On the other hand, BJD leader Debi Prasad Mishra said "Pratap Sarangi is knowledgeable and a sensible politician. I have no idea why he came up with such comments. But it is immoral to tag the history of India cowardice."