New Delhi: Twelve-year-old Maryam Siddiqui, a class VI student from Mumbai has won the first position at the ‘Gita Champions League’ contest, defeating 3,000 participants. The written competition based on the Bhagwad Gita was organized by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon) in January.

A student of Cosmopolitan High School, Mira Road, Maryam had always been inquisitive about religions and read them during her free hours. “I have always been inquisitive about religions and I often read up on them during my free time. So when my teacher told me about this contest I thought it would be a good chance to understand what the book is about. My parents too supported my idea of participating in the contest,” said Maryam, according to a Times of India report.

Maryam has always had conversations based on religion with her parents and had studied material provided by Iskcon for almost a month before answering the 100 mark multiple choice question based test.

“Our family believes that one needs to respect and accept all religions. No religion preaches hatred or wrong,” said Maryam’s father, Asif Siddiqui.

Earlier in March, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had said that the government will introduce teaching of Bhagwad Gita in schools across the state from the coming academic session.

(Agencies)