Story Time Gone Wrong: Sudha Murty's Raksha Bandhan Post Faces Flak

Philanthropist Sudha Murty's Raksha Bandhan post on social media on Monday faced both backlash and accusations of spreading fake stories. The narrative of the story she used to illustrate the importance of the tradition revolved around Rani Karnavati sending a thread requesting King Humayun to come help her, seeing her as a sister.

The story talking about the relevance of Raksha Bandhan and illustrating the importance of siblinghood seemed to have called for more criticism than enlightenment.

One user, Akshay Katariyaa, wrote, "This is what happens without PR. Stop wasting your time by spreading fake news."

With more replies claiming that the story is fake, the philanthropist was also accused of creating "JNU-inspired history that does not exist.".

"It is important that people with influence talk about such subjects after having done thorough research and reading," reads a post from Nivedita Tiwari.

Another user, Sumedha V. Ojha, wrote, "Sudha ji, you are factually wrong. This is a made-up story. Raksha Bandhan is a very old Hindu practice. Please read the Dharmashastras and Puranas."

Taking it to the extreme, one user named Sanket wrote, Can an FIR be applicable here for hurting religious sentiments?

Another furious user, Lakshmi Singh, wrote, "Don’t feed the nation a distorted story, please."

Replies have also pointed back to Infosys founder Narayana Murthy's idea of a 70-hour work week, which had brought strong reactions. Many X users in the comments have asked Murty to stop propagating false information and asked her to educate herself.

The real origin of the tradition of tying a Raksha Bandhan has roots in Hindu mythology, where queen Draupadi tied a piece of her saree around Krishna's wrist to stop his bleeding from a battle wound. It is believed that Krishna, who was touched by her action, promised to protect her whenever she needed it.