NEW DELHI: BJP president J P Nadda said the day the idol of Ram Lalla was consecrated at the temple in Ayodhya "is a day of
renaissance
of
spiritual and cultural consciousness
of the country which will be remembered for centuries" even as he asserted that its construction was never a political issue for his party and they never tried to take advantage of it.
Participating in a short discussion in Rajya Sabha on the historic construction of
Ram temple
and the Pran Pratishtha ceremony, Nadda said the temple will serve as a symbol embodying finest human values and stand as a reminder of peaceful coexistence, even amid global conflict. PM Narendra Modi joined the session near the end of the discussion.
Rejecting opposition's allegations that the Pran Pratistha ceremony was made an event of BJP and RSS, Nadda said despite being president of the party, he could not be a part of the ceremony.
Without explicitly mentioning former PM Jawaharlal Nehru, Nadda alluded to a time when a PM considered attending the consecration ceremony of Somnath a crime. He contrasted that with the present, highlighting Modi's act of consecrating Ram Lalla while adhering to principles of dharma.
Nadda said BJP, in its resolution during Palampur convention in 1989, had committed to clearing the path for constructing a grand temple at Ram Janmabhoomi.
Congress MP Pramod Tiwari contested the temple's location and said consecration was done without following Hindu rituals. "You... constructed a temple hundreds of metres away. You did not construct a temple at Ram Janmabhoomi. Make a team inspect the site. Ram Mandir is constructed away from the birthplace," he said.
Earlier, BJP's Sudhanshu Trivedi said it is clear from Ramayana that Guru-Shishya tradition is more important than issue of biological succession. He said this is the reason why we do not find temples of Luv-Kush but there are temples of Lord Hanuman than Lord Ram.
On court proceedings related to Ram temple, Trivedi said initially the Muslim side was not involved but later the so-called secular elements included them in it.
The discussion saw participation from BJD's Amar Patnaik, BRS's K Keshava Rao, JD(U) member Aneel Prasad Hegde, BJP's K Laxman and Samir Oraon, Congress' Randeep Singh Surjewala, and Union minister L Murugan.
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