KP Oli Kathmandu: Igniting the row over Lord Rama's birthplace, Nepal PM KP Sharma Oli said the Hindu deity was born in south Nepal’s Ayodhyapuri and not Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya, media reports said.
PM Oli’s remark on Ayodhya, the second in a month, comes against the backdrop of an acrimonious power struggle within the ruling Nepal Communist Party that is widely seen headed for a split. PM Oli has made it clear that he isn’t going to step down anytime soon as demanded by the rival camp led by the party’s co-chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and the two other former PMs, Madhav Nepal and Jhalanath Khanal, reports Hindustan Times.
India witnessed the laying of the foundation stone of Ram Mandir at Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday.
KP Sharma Oli has triggered another controversy last month by saying that neighbour India is manipulating cultural and historical facts by creating a fake Ayodhya in the country, which in fact is a village located west of Birgunj.
Ayodhya, a city in north Indian city of Uttar Pradesh, is believed to be the birthplace of Hindu god Lord Ram.
“We did not give Sita, who was born in Janakpur, to an Indian prince but Sita was married to Ram of Ayodhya, not of India,” the PM was quoted as saying by The Himalayan Times, adding that Ayodhya was later created in India encroaching upon facts.
Oli ‘reasoned’ that a prince from a place that far away could not possibly come to Janakpur to marry Sita as there were no means of communication and easy transportation during those times.
“There is a huge controversy in ‘their’ Ayodhya while our Ayodhya, that lies in the Thori village, has no issues as such,” he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
He did not provide any Archaeological evidence or cite references to back his statement.
Meanwhile, priests in Ayodhya called his remark as 'insane'.
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