New Delhi: Asserting that it wants a grand Ram Mandir in Ayodhya and will wait for the court’s verdict on the issue, the BJP on Monday asked Congress president Rahul Gandhi to clarify whether or not he is a Hindu after Congress leader Shashi Tharoor’s reported remarks on the Ram temple set off a political controversy.
Mr Tharoor came under fire over his reported remark that no “good Hindu” wants to see the Ram temple built by demolishing somebody else’s place of worship, which he later clarified. Taking on the Congress and its leaders, the BJP said while Mr Gandhi “visits temples and says that he is janeudhari Brahmin”, his party colleague “says no to the Ram temple ... good cop versus bad cop being played by the Congress”.
The BJP accused the Congress of using its leaders to build up a momentum against building of a Ram temple. BJP national spokesman and Rajya Sabha member G.V.L. Narasimha Rao said his party wants an early verdict from the Supreme Court on the Ram temple case but the Congress was trying everything to delay it. He alleged that Congress leaders had earlier filed a plea in the court to delay the matter and that Mr Tharoor was the latest to join the bandwagon by linking the construction of a temple with the “demolition of a disputed structure” that happened decades back.
“You (Congress) are conspiring to ensure that there is no verdict from the court,” said Mr Rao.
