Union Minister of Textiles Smriti Irani has fired a fresh salvo at Congress President Rahul Gandhi and said by denying the existence of Lord Ram, he has given an indication to the denizens of the country that the Congress believes and praises Hinduism only when they need vote banks.

During her visit in Amethi on Friday, Smriti told ANI: "It is not surprising that Ram Mandir issue is not important for Rahul Gandhi because Congress had clearly mentioned in the affidavit submitted by the party in the court that Lord Ram doesn't exist. This gives the clear indication to people of this country that Congress believes and praises Hinduism only when they require vote banks. It shows that neither Rahul is interested in the issue nor he has any faith in Lord Ram."

Attacking Rahul for delaying his scheduled visit to his parliamentary constituency Amethi, the Union Minister asserted, "Rahul is not coming to Amethi even when parliament is not working tomorrow (Saturday). This shows neither he can come on time to his own constituency nor he can give timely solutions."

The Union Minister further touched upon the Rafale issue and said that Rahul is not satisfied with the legitimate answers given to him by the Defence Minister (Nirmala Sitharaman) and the Finance Minister (Arun Jaitley) in the Parliament as he is more interested in justifying lies spread by his party. He will get all his answers when our party (BJP) will come back to power in 2019.

Smriti Irani, who visited Amethi to inaugurate first computerised tomography (CT) scan machine installed in the district hospital, slammed Rahul Gandhi for not providing proper health facilities to people of his own constituency.

Earlier in a day, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh stated that Rahul Gandhi's visit to Amethi which was scheduled for Friday has been cancelled. "Rahul Gandhi's program has been cancelled for the day. Rest of the will be conveyed soon," Singh said.

"I would say that this is very unfortunate that after independence for the first time city scan machine was set up in Amethi. This shows double-standards of Congress and the position of Amethi in the matter of development," she said.

Smriti further congratulated Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to inaugurate CT scan machine and provide free health check up to people in the hospital.

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