Patna: Asserting that the Ayodhya Ram Mandir “does not belong to Modi or Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh”, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Rajya Sabha MP Misa Bharti Tuesday said she and her family would visit the temple after the Lok Sabha elections.
Misa Bharti — RJD’s candidate from Bihar’s Patliputra Lok Sabha seat — was responding to media questions about her father, Lalu Prasad Yadav, and INDIA bloc ally Congress declining invitations to attend the Ram Mandir ‘Pran Pratishtha‘ in January.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had raised the issue Sunday at an election rally in Bihar’s Nawada.
“I do not know what the PM said or did not say. Currently, we are busy with the elections. After the elections, we will go there (Ram Mandir). Who will stop us?” she said during her election campaign, stressing that she and her family are ‘Sanatanis‘.
Her brother, former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, had also reacted sharply Tuesday to Modi’s attack. “We do not need any certificate. We respect all religions. There is a mandir inside our house. Who has not seen my mother (Rabri Devi) doing Chhath puja? The puja has been taking place ever since I was a small child,” he said.
A few RJD MLAs had criticised the event in January, but party sources said the leadership later asked everyone to refrain from making such comments.
Claiming that the party followed Congress instructions to boycott the event in January, an RJD MLA, on condition of anonymity, said, “We realise that it has the potential of damaging our chances in the polls.”
When contacted, Congress leaders were reluctant to speak about the BJP and the RJD sparring on the Ram Mandir. A senior leader, however, said, “A lot of Congress leaders from Bihar wanted to go to Ayodhya in January. But the sword of expulsion hung over our heads. We are beginning to realise that our stand was a mistake, and we would be paying for it.”
“On the day of the (temple’s) inauguration, I travelled 300 km towards Darbhanga and saw flags hoisted on both sides of localities, situated near the highway. They included villages dominated by the backward and Dalit sections,” the leader said on condition of anonymity.
Officially, Congress leaders of late have been saying they are not opposed to Ram Mandir. “Shankaracharyas are the patrons of ‘sanatan dharma’. They were absent in Ayodhya on 22 January. Once they visit Ayodhya, we will go to the Ram temple and pray,” former Congress MLA Harkhu Jha told ThePrint.
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‘Lalu & family realise mistake on Ram Mandir’
After Misa Bharti’s comment, BJP leaders claimed the RJD now realises that it made a mistake regarding the Ram Mandir. “Finally, the time has come for Lalu and his family to acknowledge their mistake and visit the Ram Mandir. Lalu had got L.K. Advani arrested and stopped his ‘(rath) yatra’. Now, he realises it was a mistake and will do ‘prayaschit (penance)’ for his sins,” said BJP spokesperson Prem Ranjan Patel.
In 1990, L.K. Advani had led thousands of ‘kar sevaks’ in a ‘rath yatra’ as an agitation for the Ram Mandir at the site of the Babri Masjid. This was followed by religious unrest in various parts of the country. On 23 October, 1990, the then Lalu Prasad Yadav-led Bihar government had arrested Advani in Samastipur.
R.K. Singh, now Union minister and BJP candidate from Arrah seat, was the key person who arrested Advani as the then district magistrate of Samastipur.
“In 1990, L.K. Advani undertook the ‘rath yatra’ to consolidate Hindu votes. Lalu was seeking to capture Muslim votes from the Congress… Strangely, both the BJP and Lalu achieved their political goals through Advani. Muslims started to vote en bloc for Lalu, and it continues. On the other hand, the Congress suffered badly in Bihar,” said political analyst and former MLC Prem Kumar Mani.
It’s an irony that the RJD and the Congress are on the same side, Mani added.
Mani agreed with the BJP that the RJD made a mistake on Ram Mandir, whose establishment the party’s voter base has hugely supported. “When Ram Navami processions are out, one will find that most of the flags are in the localities of OBCs (Other Backward Classes), including Yadavs. Misa Bharti’s statement on Ram Mandir is an acknowledgement that the party has erred in its stand on the issue,” the former MLC said.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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