Senior Congress leader Manish Tewari on Wednesday asked the Bharatiya Janata Party to disclose how funds collected to build the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya have been used. Tewari said that the money, collected over 30 years, has not been accounted for in any legitimate records. According to Tewari, around Rs 600 crore had been collected in the late 1980s and had been deposited into a Swiss bank account, though this has not been proved.
“The people of BJP have no clue what the people of this country want, but they definitely want to win the elections in Uttar Pradesh by polarising the society. So, whenever there is an election around the corner, Ram Mandir is dragged off the shelf, dusted and presented to the people as a ‘commitment of their ideological purity’,” Tewari told ANI.
On Tuesday, Union Minister Mahesh Sharma had said the government was waiting for the Supreme Court’s go-ahead and was committed to building the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, where the Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992. Sharma said they would build the temple after “mutual respect” was established, and that this was the “people’s dream”.
On December 20, a fresh load of stones arrived near the Ram Janmabhumi-Babri Masjid site, evoking a sharp response from Muslim leaders and the BJP’s political opponents.
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