Comment on Lord Ram: After facing backlash over his 'Lord Ram is non-vegetarian' comment, NCP-Sharad Pawar faction leader Jitendra Awhad expressed regret on Thursday and said that he did not want to hurt anyone's sentiments.
"I express my regret if my yesterday's statement has hurt anyone's sentiments," Awhad said.
'Lord Ram was non-vegetarian'
Earlier today, Awhad sparked controversy over his recent statement on Lord Ram. He claimed that Lord Ram was a non-vegetarian. "Ram is ours. Ram belongs to the Bahujans. Ram who hunts and eats is ours, we belong to the Bahujans. When you people go to make us all vegetarian, we follow the ideals of Ram and today we eat mutton. This is the ideal of Ram. Ram was not a vegetarian, he was a non-vegetarian," Awhad said.
Awhad asked, "Where would a person living in the forest for 14 years go to find vegetarian food? Is it correct or not (question to the public)? Tell me when I am telling the truth."
The controversial statement comes just days before the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. The opening of Ram Temple is scheduled for January 22.
BJP files complaint
After the controversial statement, BJP leader Ram Kadam hit back at the NCP leader for disrespecting the emotions of crores of devotees of Lord Ram and filed a complaint to register an FIR against Awhad for his statement about Lord Ram being a 'non-vegetarian'.
"Their mindset is to hurt the sentiments of the Ram bhakts. They can't make fun of the Hindu religion to gather votes. The fact that Ram mandir has been built has not gown down well with the 'ghamandi' alliance," he told news agency ANI.
He also slammed former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray for remaining silent on such issues. Kadam further said that the truth is that Uddhav Thackeray doesn't care about Hindus or Marathis and he is not biased towards anyone and is only interested in playing dirty politics for votes.
Ram Temple chief priest refutes Jitendra Awhad's remarks
Shri Ram Janambhoomi Teerth Kshetra chief priest, Acharya Satyendra Das, strongly refuted the claims, calling them completely false saying that Lord Ram used to fruits during his exile.
"What NCP leader Jitendra Awhad is speaking is completely false. It isn't written anywhere in our scriptures that Lord Ram had non-vegetarian food during his exile. It's written that he used to have fruits. Such a liar has no right to insult our Lord Ram...Our God was always vegetarian. He is speaking demeaning words to insult our Lord Ram," Acharya Satyendra Das said.
Meanwhile, the supporters of the Ajit Pawar faction turned aggressive and created a disturbance outside his residence near Viviana Mall in Thane. During the commotion, they held a picture of Lord Shri Ram and chanted slogans of "Jai Shri Ram". Additionally, slogans against Jitendra Awhad were raised. In response to this incident, a significant police presence has been deployed outside Awhad's residence to prevent any untoward incidents.
