Congress Working Committee (CWC) member and MP Shashi Tharoor on January 23 (Tuesday) stated that each ‘Ram bhakt’ was not a BJP supporter and he noticed no motive why he or the grand outdated occasion (the Congress) ought to relinquish Lord Ram to the BJP.
Mr. Tharoor stated there have been many, together with him, who’re devotees of Lord Ram and if in future they go to the temple in Ayodhya, it could be to precise their devotion and to not damage anybody.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP stated secularism doesn’t imply absence of faith, but it surely means “pluralism” – everybody can profess the faith of their alternative.
Mr. Tharoor was talking to reporters on the Authorities Legislation School in Thiruvananthapuram following a protest by the College students’ Federation of India (SFI) activists and others in opposition to him over his Lord Ram-related publish on social media platform X.
The protesters referred to as him “shameless”, shouted slogans in opposition to him and in addition carried banners and placards one in every of which stated – ‘Shashi Tharoor you are a disgrace to a democratic secular state.’
The Congress MP had posted an image of the Lord Ram idol in Ayodhya together with a message in Hindi – ‘Siyavar Ramchandra ki jai’.
Mr. Tharoor stated the message he meant to ship out by his publish was his devotion to Lord Ram and in addition the avoidance of Sita when hailing Ram. “Therefore, there is no need to make it into such a big issue,” he stated.
Mr. Tharoor, who was invited to the faculty for an occasion by the Kerala College students Union (KSU), additional stated, “I do not see why I have to give up to the BJP a God I believe in and pray to every day? The BJP may want all Ram bhakts to vote for them. But is every Ram bhakt a BJP supporter? That is the question. In my opinion, they are not. I also ask why should the Congress relinquish Ram to the BJP? We can also accept and pray to God, we too have religion.”
‘Only opposed to the event’
Mr. Tharoor additional stated that nobody within the occasion was opposing the Ram Temple. “We were only opposed to the event,” he stated. “If I go to a temple, it is to pray and not for political reasons. Someday, I will go to Ayodhya, but it will be on my terms,” he stated.
He additionally stated that he had up to now too acknowledged that whereas each Hindu could need a Ram Temple at Ayodhya, “I have always maintained that there was no need to demolish a mosque to build it.”