To,

The Prime Minister’s Office,

Government of India,

New Delhi -110 001

 

Respected Sir,

 

Attn : Prime Minsiter of India, Sri Narendra Modi Ji

Sub :  The Unfortunate awarding of  Padma Bhushan to Dr. Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad who insulted Draupadi and Lord Krishna in his Literary works

 

With lot of sadness, Pain, disappointment and hurt, we write this note to bring to your notice a grave misjudgment in awarding this year’s Padma Bhushan to Dr. Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad in the category of Literature & Education from Andhra Pradesh.   

 

Facts of the Case :

 

Dr. Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad had written a book titled “Draupadi” which was first published in the year 2006 for which he was wrongly and sadly awarded Sahitya Academy Award in Telugu in the year 2010, in spite of severe criticism, protests and objections raised by several right thinking nationalistic and Indian culture loving intellectuals. Cases were filed against him and Sahitya academy in the year 2010 in the High Court of AP vide Writ Petition No : 2646 of 2010 for stopping the academy from giving the award to him and yet the leftist dominated anti Indian culture thinkers of Academy, supported by then UPA government went ahead and gave Sahitya academy award to him. Now he has been awarded the Padma Bhushan for the year 2016 while he does not deserve the same for his controversial, malicious and damaging contribution to Indian culture.

 

What is wrong with his writings ?

 

Dr. Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad’s writings were malicious, slanderous, scurrilous, lascivious, sexist, derogatory and grossly misrepresenting the facts with regard to Mata Draupadi who is venerated as one of the five Pativratas, and Lord Sri Krishna who is worshipped, adored and followed by millions of Hindus.

 

A few examples of his perverted depiction of Mata Draupadi are :-

1)    Page   41 : “ She was born with Desires(Lust).No, She was born to quench her desires (Lust)”.

2)    Page  44 : “ Kunti asks Draupadi, “If it was known Karna was my first son , my other sons would have felt pain for having killed him but why are you (Draupadi) so much worried ?”.  Draupadi says, “ Had it been known earlier that Karna was your eldest son , I would have become his Dharmapatni (wife). I had rejected him in Swayamvara only because he was known as Sutaputra”.

3)    Page 111  : “ The society has prescribed different Dharmic principles for Men and women. Man does not get satisfied with one woman, but woman has to be contended with only one man. She is not supposed to express her desires if she is in the mood for physical love and if her husband was not ready. But, Draupadi does not have such limitations. She has five men, legitimate Husbands, to satisfy her sexual desires and there is nobody to question her when she moves with any or all of them.

4)    Page 114 :  “ Draupadi Could understand how much Dharmaja was jealous, he could not be happy when Arjuna won her . She described her experience with Dharmaja. he touched every part of her body with his hand and saw the beauty of her whole body just as a hungry man receives anxiously innumerable tasty dishes placed before him. Selfishness opened its wings in him. He may have control on her body but he cannot occupy her mind. “

5)    Page 118 : “ She describes her satisfaction with Bheema. Dharmaja could not satisfy her. The emotions aroused by Dharmaja she felt could be satisfied by Bheema. She got prepared to be squeezed in the hands of Bheema in his embrace. She had experienced extreme joy with Bheema. “

6)    Page 123 : “She ( Draupadi) injured with her nails on the back and chest of Arjuna and he enjoyed it as if he participated in the small battle .”

7)    Page 135 :  “ When Draupadi was spending her first year with Dharmaja, he took her to show their hall of Shastras ( weapons). Suddenly he developed a desire to have sex with her . He thought that nobody would enter that premises at that time. He took her to a corner and rained kisses on her. Draupadi felt odd for their romance in the hall of weapons. Dharmaja removed her upper garments and rubbed his face on her breasts. Suddenly Draupadi saw Arjuna staring at them lustfully and Draupadi then withdrew.”

8)    Page 154 : ”(When Pandavas came to Hastinapura to play the game of Dice, Draupadi was in Antahpura or Royal rooms for women with her maid Sakhi) Sakhi was telling Draupadi that all those that were present in the royal durbar were anxious to see her. Draupadi asks” who are they?” Sakhi replies ”Duryodhana, his hundred brothers, Karna, Shalya, Sakuni, Bheeshma and Drona were anxious to see her Beauty. There is no exaggeration even Dritharashtra was feeling pained that he could not see her. “

9)    Page 163 : “ The whole court of Kauravas was prepared to observe unclothing of Draupadi. Draupadi appeared as a blue cloud in the rain having been wet with sweat. Her wet clothes are exposing more beauty of Draupadi.  Her hairs were hanging up to her knees, Her upper garments had slid.  Her breasts where protruding out of her blouse. The knot of her saree got loosened and the knot came out exposing her deep navel, her trunk curved and appeared as a valley between mountains. There was nobody in the court not anxiously waiting to see the naked beauty of Draupadi. Even those who felt it as a sin and shameful act where eager to see her beauty.  Dritharashtra also had heard of her beauty. He cursed his blindness as he was unable to see her beauty. The thought that Draupadi was their Dasi (Maid) has created lot of happiness in his mind. He cursed his mother in his mind for she closed her eyes when Veda Vyasa made her pregnant”.

Attributing illegitimate relationship between Draupadi and Lord Krishna   :

1)    Page 54 : “ Draupadi doubted if Krishna was loving her . When she first met Krishna at Drupadapuri, she offered fresh Blue lotuses at his feet and when her eyes met the eyes of Sri Krishna , she felt losing control on her Desires”.

2)    yavatare binding me with it. Your attraction is excellent. That is why I got my sister (Subhadra) married to Arjuna. On the pretext of seeing my sister I can frequently come to you .

        Other unsubstantiated, wrong, malicious, sexist and lascivious comments  :

1)    Page  40 :  “Karna had vengeance on Draupadi since he could not marry her. In the game of Dice , he called her Dasi and instigated Dushyasana to disrobe her. Karna had thoughts of enjoying her once she was declared a Dasi. Had Karna known that he was son of Kunti he would have been enjoying her as rest of five brothers” .

2)    Page 168 and 169 : ” Dasis (Maids) have nothing to do with the physical appearances of men who approach them  for this reason, Mother of Vidura have not closed her eyes, fully co operated and gave pleasure to Veda Vyasa when he approached her. Vyasa begged her, “Oh princess, please be kind” and he began removing her ornaments and touched every part of her body for which she fully cooperated. In the embrace of Vyasa, she had sex with him and gave him all the pleasures. She surrendered to him fully in every act performed by him. On the following morning he was playing with her breasts and said” Oh princess, I thought you would dislike me after seeing me. When my mother (Satyavati) asked me to help the Kuru dynasty which was left without heir, I felt happy that I would enjoy sex with beautiful royal princesses who were not even exposed to the sun. My mother just a girl from fishermen village enjoyed sex with Rishi Parasara but am surprised that you being princess entertained me”.

3)    Page 6  : “Ashwattama desired to kill all his enemies including Shikandi who severed the head of his father Dronacharya”.  This shows the writer has extremely poor knowledge of Mahabharatha as Shikandi was not the one who severed the head of Dronacharya but it was Dhrishtadyumna. Dhrishtadyumna was born from fire only to kill Dronacharya.

The above examples clearly show how ill informed, lascivious, perverted and distorted depiction of highly venerated characters of Mahabharata especially Draupadi and Sri Krishna have been portrayed by this author falsely masquerading as a writer of Eminence.

 

Draupadi has been depicted as sex object who is born to quench her sexual desires, discriminated between Pandava brothers and lusted for Karna. She has been portrayed as girl friend of Lord Krishna while the epic clearly states that their relationship is one of brother and sister.

 

The language used by Dr. Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad is titillating, provocative and vulgar to say the least. The novel cannot be read out openly in a family get together without embarrassing every one. The religious sentiments of majority Hindu population of the state and the country are deeply hurt by the profanities indulged by the Author. If such novels with such vulgar and obscene titillation are sold on the streets, they are confiscated and cases booked for obscenity and vulgarity. However, if the same language is used in academia and among the self certifying intellectuals, it gets rewarded with award after award.

 

When he was being given Sahitya Academy Award in 2010, several intellectuals, writers, academicians and right thinkers including Dasaradhi Rangacharyulu, Prominent writer and freedom fighter , Justice B. Subhashan Reddy , Chairman AP State Human Rights Commission, Nandamuri Lakshmi Parvathi, Author and Wife of Late N. T Rama Rao, Jonnalagadda Markandeyulu, eminent author, Telakapalli Ravi, Sahithi Sravanti State Convenor, Acharya Kovela Suprasannacharya, Eminent poet and writer among many others have severely Criticized, condemned and written detailed rebuttal write up’s published in several prominent vernacular publications . And yet ignoring the popular narrative Sentiments the then Sahitya Academy went ahead and awarded this author.

 

The court cases and the protests have never stopped since the grant of Sahitya academy award. Several Demonstrations were held by many organizations and many representations were given to the police, Sahitya academy, the publishers and to the Author. However to the utter shock and disbelief and insult to every right thinking nationalistic, Indian culture loving and civilized citizens the same Dr. Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad has been Awarded Padma Bhushan this year ignoring the criticisms and wrong doings of this gentleman.

 

The author had floated an NGO called Lokanayak Foundation through which he used to distribute lavish cash awards to several literary personalities with a view to buy their loyalties and support. These very beneficiaries stood by him in good stead when his name was recommended and bulldozed through all award approving committees. The same contacts and connections have now helped him to “manage” his Padma Bhushan right under the nose of his diametrically opposing Government and support base.

 

All the Right thinkers are faceless and defenseless before the leftists and anti Indian culture lobby as the Padma Bhushan Awarded by our own nationalistic government cannot be defended. While the Government is facing severe challenges with regard to the orchestrated dissent by the leftist inspired and Congress nurtured intellectuals, nothing seems to have changed on the ground even after the change of more respecting, responsive and responsible Government coming to power. The underlying lobbies and the bureaucracy seem just unaffected and it is business as usual.

 

If Bharat has to become the Jagdguru of the world, do we promote, encourage and reward people who abuse our culture, epics, heroes and heroines and our core beliefs? Once awarded, these psudo intellectuals gain immense authority on their subject matter and dictate the narratives in the academic and education fields. Our next generation would start taking such absurd degradation of our culture as true and would have no respect for our true and real past. Such award winning author’s books get prescribed as text books and or reference books in colleges and universities to the detriment of the correct narrative to the next generation,

 

In view of all the above obscene, controversial and for hurting the religious and venerated beliefs of millions of Indians, the said Padma Bhushan may please be stopped for now, a detailed investigation be done by scholars of repute, and the award may be cancelled if his works are found to be scandalous, damaging and sacrilegious. Instructions may also please be given to the Sahitya Academy to consider withdrawing their previous award to him with proper theological justification.

 

Ravi Shankar Chavali

Social Media Activist