Bihar’s land reform and revenues minister Alok Mehta has landed in a soup with his latest statement on the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony, joining the long list of RJD leaders stoking a controversy over the much-hyped event.
“Pulwama-like incident can happen again. Attempt to get political benefits after orchestrating fake surgical strikes could be made… Look at the drama happening there… be vigilant this time… they are trying to prove we are atheists. God remains in every one of us,” Mehta said.
Weeks before the mega consecration ceremony of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, a series of statements that the BJP claims to be hurting crores of Hindus sentiments are been given in public by RJD leaders in Bihar stoking controversy.
The brouhaha started last week when Bihar’s deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav asked during a public address whether Ram needed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mercy for shelter.
“Lord Ram does not need temples or castles. Lakhs of crores are being spent in Ayodhya. Imagine if they spent it on salaries, education or medical facilities, then it would have benefitted many people,” he said.
During his address in Jhanjharpur in Madhubani district, Yadav said: “I want to ask people if Lord Ram needs Modi. If Lord Ram wants, he can easily make a temple for himself anywhere he wants. However, PM Modi is showing that he has given a house to Lord Ram. I want to ask the people if they become sick, will they go to a temple or a hospital? Lord Ram wants prosperity for every section of society and prosperity will come through good health, education, jobs, and removing poverty.”
Later, RJD MLA from the Dehri assembly constituency of Rohtas district, Fateh Bahadur Singh Kushwaha, put up a poster outside the residence of Lalu-Rabri and Tejashwi Yadav in Patna, describing temple worship as a path to mental slavery.
The content on the poster, attributed to Savitri Bai Phule, read: “Temple means the path of mental slavery and school means the path of light in life. When the temple bell rings, it gives us the message that we are moving toward superstition, hypocrisy, stupidity, and ignorance, and when the school bell rings, we get the message that we are moving toward rational knowledge and scientific light. Now you have to decide which direction you should go.”
Soon, Bihar education minister Chandra Shekhar — who had once termed Ramcharitmanas ‘garbage’ — jumped into the fray to defend Singh’s remarks.
“If you get injured, where will you go? Temple or hospital? If you want education and want to become an officer, MLA, or MP, will you go to a temple or school? Fateh Bahadur Singh said the same thing that had been said by Savitribai Phule. What is wrong here? He quoted Savitribai Phule. Isn’t education necessary?
He added: “We should be cautious of pseudo-Hinduvaad and pseudo-nationalism…When Lord Ram resides in each one of us and everywhere, where will you go to look for him? The sites that have been allocated have been made into sites of exploitation, used for filling the pockets of a few conspirators in society.”
RJD MLA from Gaya’s Atri, Ajay Yadav, in an event said BJP could indulge in a “serious conspiracy to orchestrate bomb blasts” during the Ram temple’s consecration ceremony in Ayodhya on January 22 and blame it on Pakistan-based terrorists or minority community for mere political gains.
The Bharatiya Janta Party has been ignoring these comments and accusing RJD leaders of playing appeasement politics.
Rajya Sabha member and former deputy CM of Bihar Sushil Modi in a press release said, “If at the behest of Lalu Prasad, RJD MLA and ministers are continuously making indecent comments on Ram Mandir, Devi Saraswati and Ramcharitmanas, then the party should show courage to directly declare that it does not want the votes of temple-going Hindus.”
Modi further said that if the education minister considers the temple a symbol of slavery and exploitation, then why is he in the slavery of a party whose president visits Tirupati and Thave Devi temples. “Who is stopping those who are opposing the temple from building schools and hospitals? They should tell how many schools were built by the education minister in the second innings and how many new hospitals were built by the health minister of the same party in one-and-a-half years.”
