Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha: Congress leader and former Karnataka chief minister Veerappa Moily has doubts whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi fast for 11-days before performing the consecration ceremony of Ram Lalla's idol in the grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
He termed the consecration of Ram temple in Ayodhya a 'political event' and expressed scepticism about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's fasting for 11 days.
"During a morning walk today, a doctor, who was accompanying me said it is not possible for anyone to survive for 11 days without food. If someone has survived then it is a miracle. Hence, it is doubtful that he (Modi) observed fast,” Veerappa Moily told media in Chikkaballapura.
"If he (Modi) had done Pooja in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple without observing fast then that place will become impure and will not generate (supernatural) power. He (Modi) says he has observed fast for 11 days and survived only on tender coconut. There were no signs of fatigue on his face. People and not me are questioning whether he observed fast or not,” Moily said.
Moily further said that he was curious to know what agenda BJP will have after exhausting the Ram temple issue.
"They (BJP) came to power in various states in the last 25 years saying they will install Ram statue. Now the temple is ready. What next?" Moily wondered.
Meanwhile, taking a dig at the BJP, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said he worshipped Mahatma Gandhi’s Rama and not the ‘BJP’s Rama’ at the newly built Ayodhya temple in UP.
Asked whether he has plans similar to the BJP to send three crore pilgrims to Ayodhya, Siddaramaiah wondered whether there was no Rama in the temples in Karnataka.
“Aren’t the Rama temples in the Karnataka villages true Rama temples? Don’t the idols there belong to Sriramachandra, Sita, Lakshmana and Anjaneya? The BJP is out to do politics around Rama temple in Ayodhya. Our objection is to their politics,” he said.
The Chief Minister said, “We love, respect and worship Mahatma Gandhi’s Rama, Ramayana’s Rama and Dasharath’s son Sri Ramachandra, not the BJP’s Rama.”
Hitting out at Veerappa Moily, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Lahar Singh Siroya, took to social media platform X, and said, "Veerappa Moily, who goes around wearing the mask of a great writer, thinks everybody is a fake like him. Moily has doubted PM Narendra Modi's fast before the consecration of Ayodhya Ram temple. The nation knows the truth..."
"You can fast and survive if you have faith in Lord Ram, not if you are pleasing the Gandhi family. Despite this effort to please the family, Moily will not get Congress ticket to contest from Chikkaballapur," Siroya said.
With inputs from PTI
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