BJP using Ram Temple issue to regain its lost pride: Congress

With the first lot of stones reaching Ayodhya for the construction of Ram Temple, the Congress Party on Monday asserted that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was using the Ram Temple issue to regain its lost pride.

"The age old drama has once again started. 25 years ago also, the stones were brought but the temple was never built. Whenever the image of the BJP goes down in the public, whenever they feel insecure, they start raising the Ram Temple issue," Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit told ANI.

"The business that the VHP, RSS, Hindu MahaSabha and the BJP do in selling the name of Ram is world's best marketing strategy. Unfortunately, the BJP has made the so called God, i.e. Ram, a political weapon which they use to regain their lost pride," he added.

Echoing similar view, Congress leader P.L Punia said that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are raising the Ram Temple issue for political gains and they can do anything for that.

"The RSS was first saying that the issue of Ram Temple in Ayodhya is very important and that it should be built. But when the matter went to the court, they said that the temple would be build after the orders of the High Court," P.L Punia told ANI.

"You cannot trust the RSS as they are raising this issue for political gains. And they can do anything for that political gain," he added.

Almost six months after Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) announced its nationwide drive to collect stones for construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, two trucks of stones arrived in the temple city yesterday.

RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat had earlier in Kolkata expressed hope that a Ram temple would be constructed in his lifetime.

"India is rich in religion and culture. Ram is our ideal whom some regard as god and some as a great man ... Society should rise taking inspiration from Ram and Sharad Kothari and prepare for building a grand Ram temple like Somnath," the RSS chief said in his tweet.