JAIPUR, April 13: Rajasthan opposition leader Tikaram Jully Sunday accused the BJP of working on an agenda to make people fight over religion and caste while claiming the ruling party’s ex-MLA Gyandev Ahuja, suspended for ‘purifying’ a temple, would be reinstated soon.
Ahuja sprinkled Ganga water at a Ram temple in Rajasthan’s Alwar to “purify” it last week, a day after the Congress’ Tikaram Jully attended the consecration ceremony there. Congress leaders, including Jully, decried the act as an insult to a Dalit.
Asserting there was no caste angle to his action, Ahuja, however, defended his act, saying Congress leaders have “no moral authority” to attend such ceremonies as the party’s leadership had questioned the existence of Lord Ram and “boycotted” the consecration ceremony in Ayodhya last year.
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The BJP has suspended Ahuja from the primary membership of the party.
Slamming the BJP, Jully, the Leader of Opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly, said Gyandev Ahuja was suspended from the BJP earlier too and was later reinstated. “That will happen this time too. People understand everything,” Jully said.
Talking to reporters in Kishangarh of Ajmer district, the Congress leader targeted the BJP and said, “The agenda is to make people fight in the name of religion sometimes and sometimes in the name of caste.”
While travelling from Jaipur to Ajmer, Jully halted at Kishangarh briefly. He, along with Kishangarh MLA Vikas Chaudhary, attended a blood donation camp being organised at the blood bank of Government Yagya Narayan Hospital.
About Ahuja’s action, Jully further said neither Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma nor the state president of BJP Madan Rathore uttered a word about it.
“Ahuja’s suspension is only an eyewash. This too will be withdrawn,” the Congress leader said.
BJP state president Rathore had earlier said that the party did not support Ahuja’s statement and action.
“Whether it is Madan Dilawar’s statement of getting DNA tests of tribals done or Gyandev Ahuja’s act of purifying the temple with Ganga water, all this has a set agenda,” Jully said.
Alleging that the BJP government in Rajasthan was repeatedly talking about hiking electricity and water charges while stopping pension payments, he said, “This government focuses only on the poor. If something has to be done, do it on the rich.”
Condemning the blackening of a statue of Bhimrao Ambedkar in Bikaner, Jully demanded the state government take immediate cognisance of the matter and initiate strict action against the culprits.
“This is an insult, this is an atrocity, this is intolerable… it is a deep blow to the identity of Dalits and the Constitution,” the leader of opposition in the Assembly said on X.
Jully said, “Babasaheb Ambedkar is not just a person, but the hope and voice of crores of Dalits, deprived and exploited. The attack on his statue is an attack on the Constitution that gave us the right to equality, parity and justice.”
“Under the BJP rule, great men are being insulted continuously. This is not only worrisome but also intolerable. Such incidents are not only an attempt to divide the society but are also an attack on the democratic foundation of India,” Jully said. (PTI)
