Union Home Minister Amit Shah today asked people in Ayodhya to seek an answer from Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav for the "firing on 'kar sewaks'" during his party's government in the past and asked why Lord Ram had to "stay in a tent" for years.
Amit Shah was referring to the makeshift temple on the site, which was disputed in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case.
Addressing a rally during BJP's Jan Vishwas Yatra, he alleged that the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress governments made efforts to stop the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
"Do you remember that 'kar sewaks' were shot in Ayodhya and bodies were thrown into the Saryu river," he said referring to a 1990 incident during the Samajwadi Party regime while addressing a rally at Government Inter College in Faizabad.
He alleged that under the Samajwadi Party and BSP rule, "symbols of faith were not respected".
"Today, PM Narendra Modi and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath are working for the glory of every faith," he said.
"When Akhilesh-ji comes here, seeking votes in Ayodhya, ask him what was the crime of the kar sewaks? why did your government open fire on them? what is your objection to the removal of Article 370," he said.
"Akhilesh Babu, if your second generation also comes, neither Article 370 is going to come back nor the triple talaq," Amit Shah said.
He said the Samajwadi Party, BSP, the Congress and TMC chief Mamta Banerjee worked together to oppose the scrapping Jammu and Kashmir's special status under Article 370.
On August 5, 2019, Modi-ji uprooted Article 370 in Parliament," he said.
He also credited PM Modi with the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. On the other hand, "Whenever the SP, BSP and the Congress were in power, they made efforts to stop this. Don't you remember that the kar sewaks were fired upon, sticks were used on Ram's sewaks, Ram sewaks were killed and thrown into the mother Saryu (river)."
"I want to tell all those who wanted to stop it, if you can, try and stop it because no one has the power to stop it. A grand temple will come up in a few months at the place where Lord Shri Ram was born, " he said.
He also asked Why Ram lalla had to "stay in a tent" for years.
"It is time for the people of Ayodhya, citizens of the country and people of UP to think why Ram lalla had to live in a tent for so many years," he said.
Referring to the raids conducted by the Income Tax department on the house of a perfume trader in Kanpur, Amit Shah said bundles of notes were seized and the stench of the Samajwadi perfume has spread all over UP.
He said there used to be three "Ps" during the SP government—"pariwarvaad", "pakshpaat" and "palayan" - and today there are three 'Vs'—"vikas", "vyapar" and "sanskratik virasat" - and Ayodhya is the biggest example of the three Vs.
Attacking the Congress, he said when it was in power at the Centre with the Samajwadi Party-BSP support, terrorists from Pakistan used to take away heads of jawans but when Narendra Modi became the PM, air and surgical strikes eliminated terrorists." At the rally, Amit Shah started his speech amid the chants of "Jai Shri Ram".
Earlier in the day, he offered prayers at the Ram Janmabhoomi and the Hanuman Garhi temples in Aypdhya.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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