Amid the uproar over the arrest of a Hindu activist in Karnataka’s Hubballi, Congress MLA HA Iqbal Hussain said on Thursday (4th January) that Lord Ram is his “family God” and that he is a devotee. The Ramanagara legislator also stated that he would celebrate “Ramotsava” in a “secular way.”
“I have decided to celebrate ‘Ramotsava’ with devotion with all the political parties in a grand but secular way,” Hussain said.
He further claimed to be a devotee of Hindu Gods including Saraswati, Ganesh, Lakshmi and Ram.
“I’ve already said I’m a Rama devotee. I worship all Gods and welcome them. There is no second thought about that. I have been worshipping Saraswati, Lakshmi, Ganesha and Rama since my childhood,” Hussain said.
These remarks come amid state-wide protests by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the arrest of Karsevak Srikanth Poojari for his alleged involvement in the 1992 post-Babri Masjid demolition riots.
On the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, he said, “Some people do something for their political gain but the Congress never uses God and religion to divide people. The Congress has an ideology, commitment and discipline, which I follow.”
In response to a question about the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya during an election year, he said, “It is left to them (BJP). We worship all the Gods including Rama. For them, it could be new but not for us. For us, Rama is our family God and we have a Pooja room. They are using Rama for politics. We are not.”
Notably, the Congress-led state government has reopened another case against Hindu activists in Karnataka. A case against Dattapeetha activist has been reopened a day after Karsewak Srikant Poojari’s arrest.
Interestingly, the Congress leader’s claim that Congress never uses God and religion to divide people is far from the historical record of the grand old party. Congress has for years followed the fissiparous policy of neglecting and even harming Hindu interests and indulging in the minority, specifically, Muslim appeasement. A recent example of the same was seen in the Telangana elections when Congress listed out a list of doles to be given exclusively to religious minorities (Muslims, Christians, Sikhs etc) in the State. It essentially implied that the benefits would not apply to the Hindu community.
Moreover, it was reported this week that Congress leader H Anjaneya in a blatant disrespect of Lord Ram equated CM Siddaramiah to the Hindu God. “He (Siddaramaiah) is our Ram. Why should he visit Ayodhya for the consecration event? He could pay obeisance at his native village which has a Ram temple,” Anjaneya said asserting that the Ram Lalla idol set to be consecrated in Ayodhya on 22nd January is “BJP’s Ram”.
With change in winds since 2014, Congress has been compelled to mend its ways and at least pretend not to be anti-Hindu its leaders undertake temple runs ahead of elections every time, however, a look back in history exposes the truth of Congress’s ostentatious ‘love’ for Lord Ram.
It is interesting to recall that the Congress-led UPA 1 Central Government stated back in September 2007 that there is no historical proof of Lord Ram’s existence. An affidavit filed by the Congress-led government read, “Valmiki Ramayana and Ramcharitmanas admittedly form an important part of ancient Indian literature, but these cannot be said to be historical records to incontrovertibly prove the existence of the characters and occurrences of events depicted therein.” The affidavit was filed to register the UPA government’s opposition to the demand to scrap the Sethusamudram project as it would damage the Ram Setu. In 2018, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor had asserted that “no good Hindu would want a Ram Mandir at the Babri site.”
Although Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has now taken the ‘avatar’ of a “Tapasvi,” the Gandhi scion once claimed that those who visit the temple worship the goddess… They are the ones who molest women in buses.” The Gandhi prince had also been mollycoddling with ardent Hindu haters, as evidenced by his meeting with anti-Hindu Christian pastor George Poonaiah in September 2022, who is notorious for demeaning Hindu deities and Bharat Mata and making derogatory comments about Hindu goddess Shakti and the Janeudhari, Dattatreya gotri brahmin Rahul Gandhi made no objections or attempted to stop the Hindumisic pastor.
In 2020, Congress leader Kumar Ketkar during a programme on Zee News ahead of the Bhoomi Poojan at the Ram Temple site in August denied the historical existence of Shri Ram and cast aspersions about the Hindu God being a creation of literature.
When he was asked by the anchor whether he or the Congress party now believes in the existence of Lord Rama or not, Ketkar claimed, “Ram exists because of Ramayan. However, a conclusion is yet to be reached on whether Ram is the creation of history or literature. Valmiki wrote a great epic and its impact was felt both in India and abroad. But, I don’t know if he existed in history.”
In 2019, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar at an event organized by the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) in New Delhi called ‘Ek Shaam Babri Masjid Ki Naam,’ questioned the birth of Lord Ram at Ayodhya, asking how someone could be so certain that Lord Ram was born at that historic site.
#WATCH Mani Shankar Aiyar, Congress, speaks on #RamMandir at 'Ek Shaam Babri Masjid Ke Naam' programme organised by Social Democratic Party of India in Delhi pic.twitter.com/QtckaUdW70
— ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2019
“What do you mean mandir wahin banayenge? King Dasharatha was a big king and it is believed he had as many as 10,000 rooms in his palace. Who knows which room was where? And hence they say that because we think that our Lord Ram was born here, and hence the temple should be built there, and because there is a masjid there, we will first demolish it and then build a temple at that place?” Aiyar said in 2019.
It is worth recalling that back in 2014, the Congress government in Karnataka introduced the Karnataka Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments Amendment Bill. It was a draconian bill that allowed the government to simply take over any Hindu religious charity ‘suspected’ of malpractice or corruption at some point in time.
Conspicuously, the Bill was intended to undermine the power of Lingayat Mutts in Karnataka. Furthermore, only Hindu religious institutions were to be subject to this oppressive act, affirming Hindus’ status as second-class citizens in the state. However, the uproar forced the government to withdraw the controversial bill.
Back in 2010, Rahul Gandhi had told US Ambassador Timothy Roemer that radicalized Hindu groups are a greater threat than the support of some Indian Muslims to Islamist terrorist outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba.
According to the whistleblowing website Wikileaks, Rahul Gandhi informed the then US ambassador to India Timothy Roemer that “there was evidence of some support for Islamist terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba among certain elements in India’s indigenous Muslim community; the bigger threat may be the growth of radicalized Hindu groups, which create religious tensions and political confrontations with the Muslim community.”
And who can forget former Prime Minister and Congress leader Manmohan Singh’s “minorities have first right on resources,” remarks back in 2006.
From celebrating tyrants like Tipu Sultan who slaughtered Hindus, indulging in minority appeasement to its anti-Hindu stands as seen in the Ram Mandir case, to questioning Lord Ram’s existence, and allying with parties like DMK whose leader openly calls for the eradication of Sanatan Dharma, Congress has long used religion as means to grab power.
