Ram Temple election issue for BJP: Congress on Uma Bharti 'jail' remark

New Delhi [India], Apr. 9 (ANI): The Congress on Sunday condemned Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti's remark of going to jail for the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, if need be, saying that the Ram Janam Bhoomi-Babri Masjid has always been an election issue for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Congress leader P.C. Chacko told ANI that Bharti talked about going to jail because she doesn't have any other work to do and added she should first wait for the Supreme Court to deliver its verdict on the same. "The ministers of the BJP government are making emotional statements to divert the attention of the people. For them, the Ram Janam Bhoomi and Babri Masjid is an election issue always. Now, elections are happening in some parts of the country," Congress leader P.C. Chacko told ANI. Chacko added that Bharti just raked up this issue adding some emotion to influence the elections going on in some parts of the country. "Those days are gone. People know very well that. Nobody can do anything without the consent of the court. Now everyone has come to the conclusion that a legal settlement is the only settlement in this matter," he said. Echoing similar sentiment, another Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit said the matter is subjudice and one should wait for the verdict of the Supreme Court. "If a person is saying that they will go to jail or will hang himself then it is just like breaching the law. I just want to tell them that they should not hold their office, if they are talking about breaking the law," Dikshit told ANI. Earlier on Saturday, Bharti said that the construction of the temple was her fervent belief and that she was even ready to get jailed for it. "The Ram Temple is a matter of belief for me and I have immense pride in it. I will even go to jail if I have to. I will also hang myself if I have to," she said post her meeting with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Bharti has been actively propagating the Ram Mandir issue and she has been bolstered since the BJP put the issue as one of the important subjects in their poll manifesto for Uttar Pradesh. Following the Supreme Court describing the Ram Mandir issue in Ayodhya as "sensitive" and "sentimental", Bharti had expressed happiness and also appealed to the owner of the contentious property to donate it for the construction of the temple. (ANI)