'Anti-Dalit' BJP forgets Eklavya while renaming Gurgaon: AAP

NEW DELHI: AAP today attacked BJP over the renaming of Gurgaon, calling the party "anti-Dalit" and questioned whether it approved Guru Dronacharya's act of asking "Dalit and Advivasi" pupil Eklavya's thumb.

AAP leader Ashutosh said while renaming the corporate hub to honour Dronacharya, BJP does not remember Eklavya.

"BJP by its nature is anti-Dalit. This is why to honour Dronacharya, they have changed the name of Gurgaon to Gurugram. But it does not remember Eklavya.

"The BJP should explain whether they approve Dronacharya's act of getting the thumb of an adivasi and tribal Eklavya cut?" Ashtuosh tweeted.

The BJP government in Haryana yesterday renamed Gurgaon as Gurugram, claiming that people of the area have been making a demand in this regard.

Legend has it that Gurgaon derived its name from the name of Guru Dronacharya, the master of archery in Mahabharata who tutored the Pandavas.

The village was given as gurudakshina to him by his students -- the Pandavas -- and hence it came to be known as Guru-gram, which in course of time is said to have got distorted to Gurgaon.

In Mahabharata, Dronacharya had asked Eklayvya, an ace tribal archer, for his thumb as gurudakshina.