Congress' Shivraj Patil claims Krishna taught Arjun 'jihad', clarifies after backlash | Videos

Senior Congress leader Shivraj Patil courted controversy over his remarks on Lord Krishna and his disciple Arjun after claiming that the Mahabharata says that the Hindu god taught “jihad” to the latter but seemed to backtrack from his comments a day later.

At the launch of former Union minister Mohsina Kidwai's biography, the former Lok Sabha Speaker and Union minister Patil addressed the media about jihad, causing a furore soon after on social media.

"It is not just in Quran, but in Mahabharata also, the part in Gita, Shri Krishna also talks of jihad to Arjun and this thing is not just in Quran or Gita but also in Christianity," Patil tells mediapersons in Hindi.

The 87-year-old leader further added: "If after explaining everything, people are not understanding, they are coming with weapons then you cannot run, you cannot call that jihad and you cannot call it wrong, this is what must be understood, there should not be this concept of making people understand with weapons in hand.”
After his comments backfired and the video got viral on social media and even made it to headlines, Patil clarified a day later in a feeble attempt to justify the remarks caught on camera.

"It is you who is calling it jihad. Would you call Krishna's lessons to Arjun, Jihad? No, that is what I said,” Patil told reporters. The new comments have been shared by news agency ANI on Twitter where Patil is also heard telling a reporter to “stop talking” as he pointed his finger at him.
"If you kill Mahatma Gandhi, it is Jihad. The act of killing him is Jihad," Patil also said in the new remarks.
The former home minister's comments has especially upset the BJP whose spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla tweeted the clip of his first remarks with the caption: "After AAP's Gopal Italia & Rajendra Pal, not to be outdone in Hindu hatred & votebank politics, Congress' Shivraj Patil says Shri Krishna taught 'Jihad' to Arjun! Congress coined Hindu/Saffron terror, opposed Ram Mandir, Questioned Ram JI's existence, said Hindutva=ISIS.”

In both videos, the elderly leader seemed getting sidetracked several times as he even referred to newly elected Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge as “Khandelwal” a couple of times in his address where he spoke about a wide range of topics, not necessarily connected to the last.