NEW DELHI: Congress on Tuesday defended Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy for drawing a contrast between Lor Ram and Shiva, saying that the remarks were directed against Bharatiya Janata Party which is doing politics “in the name if Lor Ram.”Congress Telangana chief Mahesh Kumar Goud said that BJP is trying to own Lord Ram and fetch votes in the elections and said that it is not a good practice.“What Revanth Reddy has said is that Lord Ram looks rich because of his clothing, while Lord Shiva looks very poor. Physically, when we see both the Gods, one feels that Shiva represents the poor and Lord Ram represents the rich. But both the Gods are the same to us, and we pray to both the Gods. But unfortunately, the BJP is doing politics in the name of Lord Ram. The BJP is trying to own Ram and fetch votes in the elections. This is not a good practice,” Goud said.“Why should he (CM Revanth Reddy) apologise? I’m defending Revanth Reddy. Look-wise, Lord Ram wears a lot of ornaments. He looks rich, whereas Lord Shiva, with no clothes, physically looks poor. That is the difference. But we have affection for both the Gods, we pray to them, and we wish that both the Gods bless us,” he added.This comes after Reddy on September claimed that Congress had succeeded only in the southern states but struggled in the north because the BJP had “stolen Lord Ram”, who is revered there, while Lord Shiva is worshipped in the south.Speaking at an interactive session organised by a media organisation in Delhi, Reddy also claimed that Shiva was the God of the poor, Ram was the God of the rich, and the BJP was a party of the rich.Meanwhile, Reddy’s remarks strong response from Union minister Sanjay Kumar Bandi, who accused the Telangana chief minister of creating political divisions between Lord Ram and Lord Shiva.In a post on X, Bandi said Reddy, who had earlier remarked that “Muslim is Congress, Congress is Muslim”, was now “drawing political boundaries between Lord Ram & Lord Shiva”.
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“Being the CM of Telangana that has Dakshina Kashi at Vemulawada and Dakshina Ayodhya at Bhadrachalam, Revanth Reddy should know better than to divide Lord Rama and Lord Shiva into North and South,” he said.Telangana BJP president N Ramchander Rao also criticised Reddyand said, “Revanth Reddy’s statement with regard to Ram and Shiv and comparing that Ram belongs to the rich and Shiv belongs to the poor, and PM Modi always says ‘Jai Shri Ram’ but doesn’t say ‘Har Har Mahadev’ is an absurd and insulting statement to the Hindu religion. In fact, it is a statement given with an intention to break the Hindu community.”“Of late, Revanth Reddy has converted himself into ‘Revanthuddin’ because he says that Muslim is Congress and Congress is Muslim. So perhaps he must be feeling that he’s still a Muslim and therefore trying to divide the Hindu community,” he added.
