Mumbai/Shirdi: Days before the mega Ram temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya to be attended by top leaders, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Jitendra Awhad has provoked a controversy with his comment that “Lord Ram was a non-vegetarian”.
However, the NCP leader later apologised for the comments on Thursday. “I don’t speak without research… I don’t want to intensify, but if someone is hurt by what I said then I apologise,” the NCP leader said.
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Awhad further said, “Those who cannot talk logically will talk about cases against me, but those who chat ‘Ram Ram’, I want to tell them that Ram stays in our hearts.”
The NCP leader, in his Wednesday speech at Shirdi, had also said that there was an attempt to turn India into a vegetarian nation. He claimed that 80 per cent of the country’s population is still non-vegetarian and that they were also devotees of Lord Ram.
“Lord Ram belongs to us, Bahujans. He used to hunt and eat animals. He is a Bahujan. They are trying to make everyone a vegetarian by giving Lord Ram’s example. But Lord Ram was not a vegetarian, he was a non-vegetarian. A person who has stayed in the forest for 14 years — where will he go to find vegetarian food?” Awhad said, referring to the years Lord Ram spent in the forests in the Hindu epic Ramayana.
The comment, which comes ahead of the grand consecration of the new Ram temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya later this month, has sparked a massive controversy, with some seeking action against him for hurting religious sentiments.
A large group of supporters of the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP turned up outside Awhad’s Mumbai home on Wednesday night and shouted slogans against him. The protesters returned this morning with a poster of Awhad, which they repeatedly hit with slippers. The police have deployed extra personnel in front of Awhad’s house.
Led by BJP MLA Ram Kadam, the protesters said they will march to the nearest police station and file a case against the NCP MLA over his comments that hurt the sentiments of Hindus.
“All devotees of Lord Ram will file a police case against Jitendra Awhad,” Kadam said. “If Balasaheb were alive, today’s Saamana newspaper would have spoken harshly to those who called Lord Ram a non-vegetarian,” Kadam said in a post on X, referring to the Shiv Sena’s mouthpiece.
“But what is the reality today? Anyone can say anything about Lord Ram; anyone can make fun of Hindus. They don’t care. They are as cold as ice. But come elections, they will talk about Hindutva,” the BJP MLA said.
“Such liar…”: Ram Temple Chief Priest on NCP leader’s Lord Ram remark
Meanwhile, in response to Nationalist Congress Party- Sharad Pawar faction leader Jitendra Awhad’s recent statements on Lord Ram, Shri Ram Janambhoomi Teerth Kshetra chief priest, Acharya Satyendra Das, strongly refuted the claims, calling them “completely false.”
Awhad had earlier sparked controversy by asserting that Lord Ram, during his exile, was a non-vegetarian.
In opposition to these statements, Chief Priest Acharya Satyendra Das asserted, “What NCP leader Jitendra Awhad is speaking is completely false. It isn’t written anywhere in our scriptures that Lord Ram had non-vegetarian food during his exile. It’s written that he used to have fruits.”
“Such a liar has no right to insult our Lord Ram. Our God was always vegetarian. He is speaking demeaning words to insult our Lord Ram,” Acharya Satyendra Das stated expressing his disapproval.
