Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Manish Tiwari said here today that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is raking up controversial issues like the construction of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya prior to elections.
He stated the BJP is making false promises in its endeavour to gain popular support
Earlier, a leader of the BJP, Amit Shah raked up the controversial Hindu temple issue during his visit to Ayodhya last week.
At Ayodhya, Shah had visited the temple of Lord Hanuman, Hanumangarhi, and prayed for the early construction of the Ram temple at the controversial site where the Babri Masjid was pulled down by associates of BJP.
"The matter is very clear, whenever the elections are coming up and these are still one year away. There are three issues that the Bharatiya Janata Party dusts off the shelf and brings up. The first is of the Ram Mandir, the second is the uniform Civil Code while the third is about Article 370 and then when the elections end, these issues are closed inside a closet," said Tiwari.
The opposition Hindu-nationalist BJP had campaigned for a temple to be built on this very site.
On December 06, 1992, thousands of Hindu fundamentalist groups demolished Babri Masjid contending that the Mughal ruler Babar had built a mosque on a place where stood a temple, dedicated to Lord Rama. The place was claimed as the birthplace of Lord Rama.
Commenting on this at Mumbai , senior Congress leader and also a main accused in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, Jagdish Tytler said that he had no idea why such controversial issues had been raised and termed these as ludicrous.
"This means that he (Amit Shah, a senior leader of BJP from Gujarat) is uneducated, and he has no understanding of the matter. The issue is in the Supreme Court and there is no higher power than the Supreme Court so we don't know why he has given such a statement," said Tytler.
The demolition triggered some of India's worst riots .
Meanwhile, in the national capital, spokesperson of the BJP, Meenakshi Lekhi said that it was an issue of faith for the whole of India as such the temple had to be built at that very site in Ayodhya.
"Ram Mandir (temple) is not a political issue for us. It is not only a matter for the Bharatiya Janata party but it is an issue of faith for the whole of India and this issue has always been in the manifesto of the BJP and the issue will remain. The issue is how the Ram Mandir should be built, should it be built with the consent of everyone, should be built by the order of the court or by an act of the Parliament whichever manner it happens, it should be built, it is a matter of the faith for the whole of India," said Lekhi.
The Allahabad High Court in September 2010 ruled the site of the former Babri Masjid mosque destroyed by Hindu rioters in 1992 into three separate plots for Hindus, Muslims, and a local Hindu trust.
