Senior BJP leader Shivraj Singh ChouhanFormer Chief minister and senior BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday said the Congress had hurt the sentiments of crores of Hindus while accusing the party of considering a probe to verify if Sita had indeed been kidnapped.
“Officers in Kamal Nath government will carry out a survey in Sri Lanka to check if Sita had been kidnapped. By talking about a probe to verify a fact that the whole world knows, the Kamal Nath government has hurt the feelings of crores,” Chouhan tweeted.
During his tenure as the Madhya Pradesh chief minister, Chouhan had in 2010 promised to build a “grand temple” dedicated to Sita at Divurumpola in Sri Lanka, where she is believed to have undergone a trial by fire. Chouhan had allocated Rs 1 crore in 2016, claiming that necessary permissions were obtained for the temple from the Sri Lanka government and the Centre. However, the temple was never built.
Chouhan’s remarks were in response to comments by the Law and Religious Affairs Minister P C Sharma. Sharma had two days ago said that the Congress government will send a team to Sri Lanka to verify if the BJP government had done anything concrete on the ground. The minister never spoke about verifying events in the Ramayana.
In a video posted on Twitter, Chouhan said the Congress government should continue his ambitious project because “certain matters are above party politics”. He claimed that all necessary permissions had been taken and “building a temple was just a formality”.
Sharma on Tuesday said he checked all the files in his department but could not find any correspondence related to the matter.
