Will Ram descend from heaven to address farmers' woes: Farooq Abdullah to Centre

The NC leader has said that the BJP is fooling people on the issue of Ram temple.

NEW DELHI: In a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre, National Conference (NC) chairman Farooq Abdullah has said that the ruling party has been fooling people on the issue of Ram temple.  

The former J&K chief minister said that the BJP government is allegedly fooling the people of the country by ''ignoring real issues of farmers, unemployment and Dalits, and is instead fighting for the construction of a Ram temple.''

"Today, India is not fighting for the issues that really matter - farmers, unemployment, the downtrodden, the Dalits. They (the BJP government) are fighting for Ram! They are simply fooling the people and destroying Kashmir, " the NC patron said.

Abdullah then asked, “Is Ram going to come from heaven and improve the situation.''

“Today, look at secular democratic India. You’re (BJP) fighting for Ram. Is Ram going to come from heaven and give farmers something better? Or unemployment will disappear in a day because Ram is coming. They are just fooling people,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

The former J&K chief minister also accused the BJP of running a propaganda in the name of development in the state.

The NC chief stated that the core problem regarding the issues between Kashmir and the rest of India was the fact that there was a ''complete lack of trust.''

"You think a Kashmiri Muslim is a Pakistani. Why the hell are you pushing us into Pakistan? When you beat a Muslim in a university just because he is a Muslim from Kashmir, what do you think that I, as a Muslim from Kashmir, must be feeling? Have I made the right choice to be part of India? Is this Gandhi's India or Nehru`s India? This is what is playing on our minds," Abdullah said.

The veteran NC leader had in November asked why a Ram temple should be built in Ayodhya only as Lord Ram is omnipresent and belongs to the entire world.

Remarks from Abdullah came days after BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya had recently claimed that the party is not thinking of bringing an ordinance “as of now” for construction of the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya. 

However, he asserted that only the grand old party could construct the Ram Mandir as “no one else has the guts” to do it.

He also rubbished opposition’s claims that the saffron party rakes up Ram Mandir issue for political benefits ahead of elections.

“The BJP has not raised the matter, it was saints and other organisations that did. The party has never gone into polls with Ram Mandir issue. For us, the agenda has always been ‘Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas’,” Vijayvargiya said.