Justice Dave's remarks about introducing Mahabharata at elementary level inappropriate: Sitaram Yechury

Communist Party of India Marxist (CPI-M) leader Sitaram Yechury on Sunday described it as completely wrong for a Judge of the Supreme Court like A R Dave to suggest introducing texts like Mahabharata and Bhagwad Gita from elementary level in schools.

"If indeed he has said this as media reports suggest, then that is completely wrong. What he has said that means that you give religious education in schools and that too regarding one religion. It's given in our constitution that each religion has equal rights. So if you talk about one religion this is going against the judgement of his own. Being a sitting judge he should not have said that," Yechury told ANI.

Justice A. R Dave's comments at a conference on Saturday have led to a controversy.

He had reportedly said, "Somebody who is very secular ... so-called secular will not agree...But had I been the dictator of India, I would have introduced Gita and Mahabharata in Class 1. That is the way you learn how to live life. I am sorry if somebody says I am secular or I am not secular. But if there is something good, we have to get it from anywhere.