Patna: Asserting that the Ayodhya Ram Mandir “doesn’t belong to Modi or Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh”, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Rajya Sabha MP Misa Bharti Tuesday mentioned she and her household would go to the temple after the Lok Sabha elections.
Misa Bharti — RJD’s candidate from Bihar’s Patliputra Lok Sabha seat — was responding to media questions on her father, Lalu Prasad Yadav, and INDIA bloc ally Congress declining invites to attend the Ram Mandir ‘Pran Pratishtha‘ in January.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had raised the problem Sunday at an election rally in Bihar’s Nawada.
“I have no idea what the PM mentioned or didn’t say. At the moment, we’re busy with the elections. After the elections, we’ll go there (Ram Mandir). Who will cease us?” she mentioned throughout her election marketing campaign, stressing that she and her household are ‘Sanatanis‘.
Her brother, former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, had additionally reacted sharply Tuesday to Modi’s assault. “We don’t want any certificates. We respect all religions. There’s a mandir inside our home. Who has not seen my mom (Rabri Devi) doing Chhath puja? The puja has been going down ever since I used to be a small baby,” he mentioned.
A couple of RJD MLAs had criticised the occasion in January, however occasion sources mentioned the management later requested everybody to chorus from making such feedback.
Claiming that the occasion adopted Congress directions to boycott the occasion in January, an RJD MLA, on situation of anonymity, mentioned, “We realise that it has the potential of damaging our probabilities within the polls.”
When contacted, Congress leaders had been reluctant to talk about the BJP and the RJD sparring on the Ram Mandir. A senior chief, nevertheless, mentioned, “Quite a lot of Congress leaders from Bihar wished to go to Ayodhya in January. However the sword of expulsion hung over our heads. We’re starting to understand that our stand was a mistake, and we might be paying for it.”
“On the day of the (temple’s) inauguration, I travelled 300 km in direction of Darbhanga and noticed flags hoisted on either side of localities, located close to the freeway. They included villages dominated by the backward and Dalit sections,” the chief mentioned on situation of anonymity.
Formally, Congress leaders of late have been saying they aren’t against Ram Mandir. “Shankaracharyas are the patrons of ‘sanatan dharma’. They had been absent in Ayodhya on 22 January. As soon as they go to Ayodhya, we’ll go to the Ram temple and pray,” former Congress MLA Harkhu Jha instructed ThePrint.
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‘Lalu & household realise mistake on Ram Mandir’
After Misa Bharti’s remark, BJP leaders claimed the RJD now realises that it made a mistake concerning the Ram Mandir. “Lastly, the time has come for Lalu and his household to acknowledge their mistake and go to the Ram Mandir. Lalu had acquired L.Okay. Advani arrested and stopped his ‘(rath) yatra’. Now, he realises it was a mistake and can do ‘prayaschit (penance)’ for his sins,” mentioned BJP spokesperson Prem Ranjan Patel.
In 1990, L.Okay. Advani had led hundreds of ‘kar sevaks’ in a ‘rath yatra’ as an agitation for the Ram Mandir on the web site of the Babri Masjid. This was adopted by non secular unrest in numerous components of the nation. On 23 October, 1990, the then Lalu Prasad Yadav-led Bihar authorities had arrested Advani in Samastipur.
R.Okay. Singh, now Union minister and BJP candidate from Arrah seat, was the important thing one that arrested Advani because the then district Justice of the Peace of Samastipur.
“In 1990, L.Okay. Advani undertook the ‘rath yatra’ to consolidate Hindu votes. Lalu was in search of to seize Muslim votes from the Congress… Unusually, each the BJP and Lalu achieved their political objectives via Advani. Muslims began to vote en bloc for Lalu, and it continues. Alternatively, the Congress suffered badly in Bihar,” mentioned political analyst and former MLC Prem Kumar Mani.
It’s an irony that the RJD and the Congress are on the identical facet, Mani added.
Mani agreed with the BJP that the RJD made a mistake on Ram Mandir, whose institution the occasion’s voter base has vastly supported. “When Ram Navami processions are out, one will discover that many of the flags are within the localities of OBCs (Different Backward Lessons), together with Yadavs. Misa Bharti’s assertion on Ram Mandir is an acknowledgement that the occasion has erred in its stand on the problem,” the previous MLC mentioned.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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