MUMBAI, Jan 4: Maharashtra leader Jitendra Awhad’s has sparked controversy after he claimed that Lord Ram was not a vegetarian as he couldn’t live in the jungle for 14 years being a vegetarian.
The statement comes at a time when the BJP demanded January 22 — the consecration day of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya — to be declared as a dry day and a day on which all non-vegetarian food should be banned.
Awhad further said that Lord Ram was a Bahujan and was a hunter.
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“We don’t read history and forget everything in politics. Ram is ours. Of us Bahujans. Who used to hunt to eat… Ram was never a vegetarian. He was a non-vegetarian. How can a man who lived in the jungle for 14 years remain a vegetarian,” Jitendra Awhad said.
Reacting ove the same, BJP MLA Ram Kadam sad if Balasaheb Thackeray had been alive, Shiv Sena’s Saamana newspaper would have criticised the ‘Ram non-vegetarian’ comment.
“But today’s reality is they (Uddhav Sena) do not care if somebody makes fun of the Hindus. They are indifferent, as cold as ice. But when the election comes, they will talk about Hindutva..” Ram Kadam wrote on micro-blogging site X.
Later, condemning Awhad’s statement, Shri Ram Janambhoomi Teerth Kshetra chief priest Acharya Satyendra Das said it’s written in scriptures that Lord Ram used to have fruits during exile.
“Whatever the NCP leader Jitendra Awhad said 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…” the priest added.
