Congress linking 'Ayodhya Ram Temple' with 2019 elections, says PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 6 December said the Congress party now wanted to link Ram Temple in Ayodhya with 2019 elections.

Addressing a rally here, Prime Minister Modi trained guns at the Congress over its leader Kapil Sibal's arguments in the Supreme Court (SC) in the Ramajanambhoomi-Babri Masjid case.

"Yesterday in the SC, a Congress MP Kapil Sibal was arguing (which is his right) for the Babri Masjid. He is entitled to do that but is it right for him to say: postpone hearing till 2019? Why does he have to link a Ram Mandir with elections? Is such thinking proper," the Prime Minister asked.

Coincidently, today is the 25th anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya.

He further added, "Now Congress is linking Ram Mandir with elections. They are least bothered about the nation."

While representing the Sunni Waqf Board in the Ramjanambhoomi-Babri Masjid case on Tuesday, Sibal urged the court to take up the matter after 2019 general elections as "the case was being used to polarise the electorate with an eye on the polls".

The court didn't accept his appeal and set the final hearing for February 8, 2018.

Since then the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been cornering the Congress by asking to clarify what was the real meaning of Sibal's statement.

Addressing a press conference in poll-bound Gujarat, BJP president Amit Shah demanded Congress should clear its stand on this.

He also took a jibe at the Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's Temple visits in Gujarat.

"Rahul ji is visiting temples in Gujarat but on the other hand Kapil Sibal is being used to delay Ram janmbhoomi case. Rahul ji should tell us what his view on this is," Shah said.

The Congress, however, distanced itself from Sibal's argument in the court.

"Congress has nothing to do with it as it's Kapil Sibal's personal matter who he represents in court," Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.

On 6 December 1992, Hindu kar sevaks (activists) demolished the Babri mosque in an event that triggered riots across the country. 

-ANI