BHOPAL: For decades, the issue of construction of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya has dominated national politics. However, in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, Lord Ram’s greatest devotee and Hindu god Hanuman now seems to be dictating politics ahead of assembly polls.
A political controversy has erupted in the central Indian state, due to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s statements in a recent interview to a national news channel.
In the interview, when asked about his government developing a Hanuman Lok temple corridor in Chhindwara (Kamal Nath’s political pocket-borough) in response to a giant Lord Hanuman statue built by Nath in the same district, the CM said, “The statue has been there much before Kamal Nath was there. Kamal Nath may even claim that the Red Fort and Qutub Minar were built by him, but the reality about the Hanuman statue having been there for years is known to the entire state.”
Responding to Chouhan’s statements, Nath tweeted on Monday night, “Everyone knows that I was fortunate to have built the highest Hanuman statue in Simiriya (Chhindwara) in 2014. Still, if Shivraj Ji is spreading lies, then Lord Hanuman will do justice to him.”
On Tuesday, the Congress organised Hanuman Chalisa Paaths, Sunder Kand Sadbuddhi Yajnas in its offices across the state, including state Congress headquarters in Bhopal and party offices in other major cities such as Indore, Jabalpur, Gwalior and Sagar.
“The religious events dedicated to Lord Hanuman were aimed to pray to the crisis eliminator god to render common sense to the CM, who is now spreading lies even in god’s name,” state Congress’s media wing’s head KK Mishra said.
Responding to Congress’s accusations, state BJP spokesperson Narendra Saluja claimed, “By saying that the Hanuman statue had been there much before Kamal Nath, the CM was referring to Lord Hanuman’s idol in the old Jamsavli Hanuman Temple in Sausar area of Chhindwara.