BJP & Congress in war-of-words over Sri Lanka Sita Temple's construction, Shivraj Singh Chouhan hits out at Kamal Nath's M.P Government

Former Madhya Pradesh CM and BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan has questioned the current Kamal Nath-led Congress government in the state over the construction of a Sita Temple in Sri Lanka. Speaking to media, Shivraj Singh Chouhan alleged that Kamal Nath government is not completing the Sita Temple project in Sri Lanka on time, and giving excused of 'checking the facts' in the matter. 

"The entire country and the world know that Sita was kept in Ashok Vatika in Sri Lanka, where she had to go through Agni Pariksha (ordeal by fire). When I visited Sri Lanka, it occurred to me that a grand temple should be built at this site. I am surprised that this Kamal Nath government is talking about checking the facts," the BJP leader said in a tweet in Hindi on Tuesday.

Speaking in the matter, Shivraj Singh Chouhan also claimed that all the necessary approvals were earlier given by the Indian government and the Sri Lankan government, even the construction of the Sita Temple has not initiated yet in the neighbouring country.

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Responding to Chouhan's allegations, Minister for Religious Trust and Endowments in Kamal Nath government PC Sharma alleged that the current government did not find any paperwork done in the project. 

"There was nothing on paper (about the proposed temple). We dug into the files to see if anything concrete was put on paper by the Chouhan government but found nothing. "Whatever we do will be concrete unlike empty promises of Shivraj Singh Chouhan," PC Sharma said in a press briefing. 

Shivraj Singh Chouhan had proposed a Sita temple in September 2012 when then Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa visited Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh to inaugurate the University of Buddhist-Indic Studies. It was proposed to construct that temple at Divurumpola in Sri Lanka where mythologically Sita underwent an ordeal by fire as per the epic Ramayana.

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