'How do you know where Ram was born?' asks Mani Shankar Aiyar

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has stirred another controversy with his comment on Babri demolition by questioning people's rationale of insisting on making the Ram temple at a specific location and asking them how they knew where exactly Lord Ram was born.

Speaking at a function 'Ek Shaam Babri ke Naam' on Monday, Aiyar said that question is not to whom the land where Babri Masjid once stood belongs, but whether "Indian Muslims have a right to live in India with respect".

"Make the temple by all means, if you want to. But how can you say 'Mandir wahin banayenge' (we will make the temple there only). Dashrath (Lord Ram's father) was a great king and his palace had more than 10,000 rooms, it is believed. Who knows which room was where?

"That is why, to say that Ram was born here and we will make the temple here only and will demolish the Babri Mosque for that... Is it wrong to have faith in Allah for a Hindustani," he said.

Earlier in his address, he said: "The day Babri Mosque was martyred, India's integrity was also martyred."

Without naming any particular party, he said it has never happened that Indians have confided their faith in those who do not believe in secularism.

"You got one chance in 2014. And you grossly misused that chance," he said in an apparent stab at the ruling party.