Shikhandi: Bihar example shows, politicians keep digging out this Mahabharata character
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLA Sudhakar Singh courted controversy Monday when he compared Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to Shikhandi, a character from the Mahabharata, to say Kumar had “ no standing of his own”.
Singh sparked a controversy, but it is not the first time the term has been used by political leaders to target detractors, especially to portray them as weak.
In the epic, the transgender warrior is used by Arjun, one of the Pandavas, as a human shield to kill Bhishma in the battle of Kurukshetra.
The former state agriculture minister and son of RJD chief Jaganand Singh, Sudhakar Singh, said, “Nitish Kumar’s name will not be there in history. He will not be remembered at all. He is like Shikhandi, who has no standing of his own.”
After Singh’s latest remarks, RJD national vice-president Shivanand Tiwari snubbed him, calling what he said “below dignity” and urging Jagdanand to take action against Singh. Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav called his comments “unacceptable”. Speaking to The Indian Express, Singh said his Shikhandi reference had been “blown out of proportion”.
Shikhandi has been used as a barb in the political discourse against the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, among others.
Speaking in the Lok Sabha in February 2020 on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests, BJP MP and West Bengal’s party unit chief Dilip Ghosh said his state suffered when “anti-CAA protesters burnt trains and dislocated railway tracks”. He added: “Unfortunately, these Shikhandis are in power there. The police did nothing. They did not use their baton, nor did they file an FIR.”
Back in June 2012, criticising the Prime Minister for defending the UPA government on corruption charges, lawyer and Anna Hazare-led India Against Corruption member Prashant Bhushan said the Congress was using the PM as a shield like Shikhandi. “They say he is clean,so his Cabinet must be clean. Why is the PM allowing himself to be used like Shikhandi in this manner?” he said.
Bhushan had later denied using the word while referring to the Prime Minister.
An Indore-based lawyer named Inderjit Singh Bhatia filed a petition in a local court seeking registration of a case against the Bhushan for using the word against Singh. Stating that the use of the word lowered the dignity of not only the prime minister’s office but the entire democratic system, Bhatia demanded in his petition that Bhushan be tried for treason and for hurting the religious feelings of the Sikhs.
Then Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, speaking of his tenure as Environment minister (2009 to 2011), said in July 2011, “I was made Shikhandi in the Ministry of Environment and Forests. He alleged that he was made the scapegoat in issues related to land acquisition in areas with forest cover and tribal population.”
In May the same year, while he was still the Environment Minister, Ramesh claimed “the environment was being used as a shield by some to direct their anger and frustration arising on other counts.” “Environment is becoming a modern day Shikhandi as arrows are being shot under the shield of environmental issues…. Issues being raised have nothing to do with environment,” he said when asked about certain projects facing opposition.
In August 2004, then BJP leader Yashwant Sinha called Singh Shikhandi while addressing a rally in Bangalore. Despite an uproar, Sinha refused to take it back, insisting Singh was a front with no real control over matters. At the time, the Congress said the “expression undermined the dignity of the PM’s office”, adding that the statement “reprsented the class, character and political culture of the BJP and their perverse mindset”.
