Nitish Kumar Sidesteps Queries About Education Minister's Ramcharitmanas Remark

Amid the outrage over Bihar Education Minister Chandrashekar's remark on Wednesday that Ramcharitmanas, a poem based on the epic Ramayana, is divisive and spreads hatred in society, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar side-stepped the matter claiming he wasn't aware what the minister said.

"I don't know what he said. I haven't heard his statement or seen anything about it in the news," the Bihar Chief Minister told reporters in Darbhanga on Thursday, on the sidelines of the inauguration of a newly constructed planetarium.

Bihar Education Minister Chandrashekhar had on Wednesday stoked a major controversy claiming that Ramcharitmanas stokes animosity and discrimination in the society.

The BJP came down heavily on the minister, demanding that he tenders an apology at the earliest.

However, the Education minister on Thursday reiterated his earlier statement, claiming that it the BJP which should apologise for 'not knowing facts'.

To a question on the ongoing farmers' agitation in Buxar and the alleged police crackdown on them, the Bihar Chief Minister claimed he wasn't aware of the facts of the case.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)