Bahraich, December 6: Two days after making a controversial comment on Lord Hanuman and calling him a ‘Dalit’, Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentarian from Bahraich in Uttar Pradesh - Savitribai Phule - resigned from the party, citing ‘BJP is trying to create divisions in society'.

On Tuesday, while speaking to PTI, the BJP lawmaker referred Lord Hanuman as Dalit, who was a slave of ‘manuwadi’ people. Alleging that Dalits and Backward Class people were being called ‘Bandar’ (monkey) and ‘rakshas’ (demon), she had said, “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 was he given a tail and his face was blackened. Why was he made a monkey?” Yogi Adityanath Gets Legal Notice for Calling Hanuman Dalit.

The Dalit leader was of the opinion that people belonging to the lower caste in the society had to face humiliation for long. She said, “When he did all for Lord Ram with devotion, he (Lord Hanuman) should have been made a human and not a ‘Bandar’ (monkey). At that time also he had to face humiliation due to being a Dalit. Why can’t we Dalits be considered humans?”

The leader was reacting to the comments made by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanth, who while addressing a public gathering in Rajasthan, said, “Bajrang Bali was a forest dweller, deprived and a Dalit, who worked to connect all Indian communities together, from north to south and east to west.”

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 06, 2018 03:07 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).