Caravan News
NEW DELHI — All India Majlis-e Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi has condemned Congress leader and MP Shashi Tharoor’s remarks in which he has reportedly said that Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani would never like violence for Ram Temple.
In an exclusive interview to PTI, Tharoor said: “Most good Hindus I know would want a Ram Temple at the place where they believe he was born. But most good Hindus would not have wanted it by demolishing other people’s place of worship. And this is more or less what Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani also said.”
The Congress leader quoted Advani as having called the day of demolition of Babri Masjid as the “saddest day of his life”.
“Advani said he would have respectfully wanted to relocate the site and Vajpayee had also hinted at all sorts of compromises provided the Ram Temple could also be built, it could even be a joint wall between a mosque and a temple. Who knows what Vajpayee would have wanted? He is not here to tell us but no, neither of them ever spoke in terms of demolishing the mosque and when it happened they both condemned it…” said Tharoor.
Owaisi tweeted The Indian Express story carrying Tharoor’s PTI interview with his comment: “Vajpayee will always be remembered for his “zameen ko samtal” speech and Advani as the man who led a countrywide rath yatra of destruction. Congress’s rehabilitation of Hindutva icons as ‘non-violent’ is deserving of condemnation.”
In 1990, Adavni, who was then BJP president, had led a Ram Rath Yatra from different parts of the country. The momentum led to a massive gathering of saffron workers in Ayodhya that razed the 16th century mosque to the ground on 6th December 1992. The mosque was demolished despite the Supreme Court order to maintain status quo at the disputed site.