CONGRESS LEADER KARAN SINGH PROPOSES SITA STATUE WITH RAM’S IN AYODHYA

Says better to reduce height of Ram statue to half and build statues of both

LUCKNOW: Senior Congress leader Karan Singh has urged Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath to set up a statue of Goddess Sita also along with that of Lord Ram in Ayodhya.

Singh’s letter to the UP CM comes close on the heels of the decision taken by the Uttar Pradesh government to install a 221metre bronze statue of Lord Ram in Ayodhya. The Congress leader, however, has suggested that the proposed height be reduced to accommodate the statues of both Ram and Sita at the site.

He said Sita also deserves a respected place in Ayodhya because all her life, even after being married to a Rama, she did not get the place she deserved in Ayodhya.

“If you have taken the decision to construct a magnificent idol of Lord Rama, it is better to reduce the height of the Rama statue to half and build statues of both Rama and Sita instead,” he said.

He said the thought struck him when he was attending a literary festival at Simariya in Mithlanchal last week. “After her marriage, Sita came to Ayodhya, but after had to go to a 14-year exile where she was kidnapped by Ravana. After being saved by Rama, she had to undergo the ‘agni pariksha’ and then she had to go to exile to an ashram again,” wrote Singh in his letter.

Under the existing plan, while the height of the actual statue of Lord Ram would be 151 metres, its overhead umbrella would be 20 metres and the pedestal 50 metres.

The government also plans to build a museum at the site. Five firms shortlisted for the construction of the statue have already given presentations to the UP CM and soil testing work is being done at the site.