Uttarakhand Congress MLA sparks row saying ‘You made our Ram black’
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Dehradun: Uttarakhand Assembly on Wednesday witnessed sloganeering after a Congress MLA questioned the complexion of Ram Lalla idol recently consecrated in Ayodhya.
While discussing the Uniform Civil Code Bill, Adesh Singh Chauhan, Congress MLA for Jaspur, segued into saying Ram’s complexion was ‘'saanvla' meaning dusky but was turned into black.
‘The parliamentary work minister made several references to the temple. We welcome the construction of the temple too. But what I could not understand is that we had read in books that our Ram was 'saanvla' -- meaning dusky -- but they made him 'kaala' (black)," he was quoted as saying.
The BJP ministers and legislators questioned Chauhan while raising Jai Shri Ram slogans.
Prem Chand Aggarwal, finance and parliamentary work minister wondered how Chauhan could make such a remark on Lord Ram.
The minister, sitting beside Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, accused the Congress of votebank politics.
The minister told Chauhan that ‘You do anything for votes but I request you not to say such things. Can the Congress only do appeasement and votebank politics?’
Ram Lalla, representing five-year-old Rama, was carved out of a special black granite by Mysuru-based artist Arun Yogiraj.
HS Venkatesh, Director of National Institute of Rock Mechanics, Bengaluru, reportedly claimed that the stone is 2.5 billion years old.