‘LORD RAM FROM NEPAL, NOT INDIA’: OLI
NEPAL PM SPARKS ROW BY CLAIMING THE HINDU DEITY WAS NOT INDIAN
KATHMANDU: Stoking a potential controversy, embattled Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli on Monday claimed that the “real” Ayodhya lies in Nepal, not in India and that Lord Ram was born in Thori in southern Nepal.
Condemning Oli for his remarks, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national spokesperson Bizay Sonkar Shastri said that the Left parties even in India played with people’s faith, and the Communists in Nepal will be rejected by the masses in the same way they have been here.
“Lord Ram is a matter of faith for us, and people will not allow anybody, be it prime minister of Nepal or anyone, to play with this,” he said in New Delhi.
Speaking at an event on the birth anniversary of Nepalese poet Bhanubhakta at the Prime Minister’s residence in Kathmandu,
Oli said that Nepal “has become a victim of cultural encroachment and its history has been manipulated.”
“The place called Thori, near Birgunj is the real Ayodhya, where Lord Ram was born. In India there is great dispute on Ayodhya. But, there is no dispute in our Ayodhya,” Oli was quoted as saying by his press advisor Surya Thapa.
“Although the real Ayodhya lies at Thori in the west of Birgunj, India has claimed the Indian site as the birthplace of Lord Ram. Actually, Ayodhya is a village lying west of Birgunj,” Oli said.