Bengaluru: Congress' Siddaramaiah chants 'Jai Shri Ram' in Assembly, irks ministers

The Karnataka Assembly on Wednesday reverberated with chants of Jai Shri Ram, but surprisingly this time it was not from one of the leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but from one of the leaders of the opposition Congress Party, Siddaramaiah. After pulling up the ruling party for the hike in prices of essential commodities on the floor, he started chanting Jai Shri Ram repeatedly. 

BJP Miffed over chants 

The Jai Shri Ram chants in the Assembly did not go down well with the ministers and it began a war of words. The first one to react was Home Minister Basavaraj, who taunting the minister in particular and the party, on the whole, said, "I am happy that at least now you are chanting Jai Shri Ram."

Taking it as an attack on the party, the Congress party hit back by affirming that the Ram Temple in Ayodhya is not the sole property of the BJP. 

"You don't have a contract with Lord Ram. I am also a Ram Bhakt and in fact Ram in the middle of my name," Siddaramaiah added. This statement of the leader attracted a response from the speaker, who asked him about his contribution to the Ram temple, on which the Congress leader said, "Lord Ram is everywhere. Why should I donate to Ayodhya's Ram?  At my village Sidramanahundi, a Ram Temple is being constructed and I have contributed to that."

Supporting Siddaramaiah was his son, Dr Yathindra Siddaramaia, who is the MLA from Varuna Constituency. He said, "We offer puja to Lord Rama at home, but don't indulge in politics over it, like BJP. On this, Revenue Minister R Ashoka intervened and said, "At least in this discussion, the Congress has chanted Ram Japa. I am happy about that."

A lot of politics has been happening lately over the chants of Jai Shri Ram. In West Bengal specifically, Mamata Banerjee has positioned "Joy Bangla" against the Jai Shri Ram slogan, claiming that the latter is alien to the Bengali culture.