Under ‘house arrest’ for over 24 hours, Congress leaders finally visit Ram Temple
Rai alleged he and a nine-member Congress delegation have been detained in hotels, stopped from taking darshan. UP CM Yogi Adityanath hit back, saying those who doubted the existence of Lord Ram are throwing tantrums to visit Ayodhya
Congress leaders protest outside ND University, Ayodhya, where Ajay Rai has been placed under house arrest. (Express Photo) A nine-member Congress delegation, which had announced its visit to Ayodhya to offer prayers at the Ram Temple on Tuesday, alleged that its leaders were detained at their hotels and guesthouses by the Uttar Pradesh administration.
Late in the night, the Congress delegation was allowed to offer prayers at Hanumangarhi and the Ram Temple under police escort, said party leaders.
“The BJP government is trying to hide something by first preventing our leaders from offering prayers and later permitting darshan under heavy security. What was the rationale behind it? asked state
Congress media department chairman and former minister C P Rai.
Earlier in the day, state Congress president Ajay Rai alleged that he had been picked up from his hotel and shifted to the Acharya Narendra Dev University guest house, where he claimed he had been placed under house arrest.
“I had reached Ayodhya a day earlier because we anticipated that something like this could happen. Despite that, we have been stopped from offering prayers,” Rai told The Indian Express over the phone.
Questioning the government’s action, Rai alleged that the BJP government was being selective in allowing devotees access to the temple. “How can the government be selective with devotees? Just a few days ago, they facilitated VIP darshan for Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal, while our delegation was denied darshan. They not only indulge in donation theft but have also made darshan a selective affair,” Rai said.
“I will go on a hunger strike if required, but I won’t leave Ayodhya without offering prayers. We wanted to pray before Ram and Lord Hanuman for the way Ayodhya has been defamed because of the greed of some people from the RSS and BJP, but we have been denied prayers before Ram. We will not budge from Ayodhya until we offer the prayers,” he told The Indian Express over the phone.
The delegation, led by Rai, included Amethi MP K L Sharma, three other MPs, an MLA, the state Congress chief and former MLC Deepak Singh, among other senior leaders. The visit had been announced amid the ongoing political controversy over alleged irregularities in donations at the Ram Temple, with the party maintaining that it was going to Ayodhya to offer prayers like any other devotee.
Party leaders had maintained that the visit was purely religious and that they intended to offer prayers at the Ram Temple like any ordinary devotee.
Adityanath targets Cong, party hits back
Amid this, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday hit out at the Congress, saying those who doubted the very existence of Lord Ram before 2017 are today throwing tantrums to visit Ayodhya.
“Before 2017, they questioned the very existence of Shri Ram. Today, they say Ram belongs to everyone. Now, they are eager to visit Ayodhya. But Lord Ram is Jagat Niyanta, the ruler of the universe; the master of this cosmos. He knows who is right and who is wrong,” he said in Rampur.
He added that devotion to Lord Ram is capable of dealing with such “demon-like figures”. “The bhakti of Ram is enough to deal with such Kalnemis. There is nothing to worry about. Their discomfort is actually about how Ayodhya has become so beautiful,” he said.
Meanwhile, in New Delhi, the Congress accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and the BJP-RSS machinery of protecting those involved in the alleged embezzlement in Ram Temple donations and demanded that the SIT report be made public.
The Congress also termed the “theft” in the donations as an attack on the faith of 100 crore Hindus and said Modi’s silence on the “loot” in the Ram temple is a direct assault on the religious faith of crores of people in the country.
The party asked Modi to own responsibility the same way he grabbed credit for the temple construction.
It also said that Lord Ram will punish those accused of embezzlement in Ram temple funds and for their ‘sins’ while the people of the country will hold the BJP accountable.
“PM Modi’s silence on the looting in Shri Ram Mandir is a direct assault on the religious faith of crores of people in the country. The Modi government formed the Trust without any transparent criteria or public consultation, including RSS members in it. Then the entire trust was also kept out of RTI. Modi ji, break your silence,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.
Behind the visit
The Congress leaders’ Ayodhya was the party’s first organised political intervention in the controversy, signalling that the party, too, intends to make the issue a political talking point ahead of the upcoming state elections.
So far, the Samajwadi Party, led by its chief Akhilesh Yadav, has been the most vocal Opposition voice on the issue, repeatedly targeting the BJP government over the alleged donation irregularities.
On June 13, the UP government constituted the SIT on a request from the temple trust following allegations of misappropriation of donations. Based on the report, eight people were arrested: Avinash Shukla, Anukalp Mishra, Lav Kush Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh Pandey, Ram Shankar Mishra, Subhash Srivastava, and Ramashankar alias Tinnu Yadav.
The accused were sent to 14-day judicial custody on Monday.
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