Respect for Babur, insult for Ram Mandir: BJP on Rahul’s ‘naach-gaana’ at Ram Mandir jibe

Congress leader Rahul’s reference to January 22 Ram Temple consecration as a “naach-gaana” (song and dance) event triggered a massive political row on Saturday with the ruling BJP slamming the Leader of Opposition as a “habitual offender of Hindu sentiments and anti-Hindu.”

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“Their three generations went and offered respects at the mausoleum of Babur in Afghanistan—Pt Jawaharlal Nehru in 1959; Indira Gandhi in 1968 and then PM Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi in 2005. Three gestures of respect for Babur and three insults for Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. This only reveals the anti-Hindu mindset of Rahul Gandhi,” BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said today after a 27-second video clip of Rahul, accusing the government of turning the Ram Mandir event into a celebrity (naach-gaana) event, went viral.

In the video of his Hisar rally on Friday, Gandhi is heard saying: “You opened the temple and told the President since you are a tribal, you cannot come inside, you are not allowed...After that they invited Amitabh Bachchan, Adani, Ambani, but did not allow a labourer. Did you see a worker? A farmer? Naach gaana chal raha tha (song and dance was going on).”

Gandhi said Awadhesh Singh (Samajwadi Party candidate) defeated the BJP worker because the country is watching everything.

The BJP today “condemned” as “highly objectionable Rahul’s references to the consecration of the temple, a ceremony that saw light of day after 500 years.”

Trivedi said Rahul “heaped three insults on the Ram Temple, first by not attending the consecration ceremony despite being invited, then by issuing a statement that no one from Congress will attend and finally by calling the ceremony a “naach-gaana event.”

“Did Rahul not see a shower of petals on 400 labourers who were invitees to the Ram Mandir consecration?’ asked the BJP leader.

Madhya Pradesh CM Mohan Yadav, former Uttarakhand CM Tirath Singh Rawat and party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad also termed Rahul’s comments “disgraceful”.