Nepal PM KP Oli claims “Lord Ram was Nepalese”
India and Nepal have been bickering for months over the border between the two countries, with the South-Asian neighbour even promulgating a constitutional amendment claiming Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura as part of its territories. It seems now Nepal has gone a step further. Amid ongoing diplomatic tussle with India, Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli claimed that that Hindu deity Lord Ram was born in Ayodhya village of Nepal and not in India as claimed. “Although real Ayodhya lies at Thori, the city in the west of Birgunj, India has claimed that Lord Rama was born there. Due to these continuous claims even we have believed that deity Sita got married to Prince Rama of India. However, in reality, Ayodhya is a village lying west of Birgunj,” Oli made a bizarre claim that has left desi netizens in splits. After Prime Minister Oli claiming that Lord Ram was from Nepal, the Nepalese embassy has submitted a set of documents in a sealed cover to the Supreme court. The documents have been submitted to the Supreme court in reply to a petition filed by Shri Mahendra Sahu, in which the petitioner asks for a trial by combat to determine Lord Ram’s lineage.
Amidst all this, many people took to their social media and started question about the issue. What could have got into Nepal’s Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, to have to want to claim earlier this month that Lord Ram was born in Ayodhya, the place in question being not in present-day India but in what is today Nepal?
An editorial in Shiv Sena’s mouthpiece Saamana called Nepal’s prime minister KP Sharma Oli a puppet of China. It further said that Oli has been spewing venom against India on instructions of China. The Shiv Sena has criticised Nepal prime minister KP Sharma Oli over his statement that the real Ayodhya birthplace of Lord Ram lies in Nepal, and not in India. “Nepal prime minister KP Sharma Oli is the puppet of China. He has been speaking against India daily on the instructions of China. First, he created controversy on maps now he’s directly dragged Lord Ram in the Nepal-India conflict. He has said that India’s Ayodhya is fake, the real Ayodhya is in Nepal; Lord Ram was Nepalese. These statements of Oli are laughable,” the editorial said.
The Sena further ridiculed Oli’s statement and said, “Today, he has claimed Ayodhya and Lord Ram are Nepalese. Tomorrow, he will claim that even Babur was from Nepal. Lord Ram belongs to the whole world, but Ram Janmabhoomi belongs to only India and there is no need for controversy on this,” said mouthpiece of Shiv Sena, is a right-wing Marathi regional and Hindu nationalist political party.
The priests in Ayodhya lashed out at Nepal’s Prime Minister, who they said had made the statements under pressure from China. “Lord Rama was born here. He was born here in Ayodhya near Sarayu river. It is a popular belief that he belongs to Ayodhya. Sita Ji (Lord Rama’s wife) was indeed from Nepal, but to claim that Lord Rama was Nepali is wrong. I condemn Oli’s statement,” Mahant Dinendra Das, Ram Temple Trust member said.
Oli has been battling an internal political crisis within NepalDiplomatic tensions between India and Nepal escalated after that country published a new map claiming Indian territory After claiming Indian territory in the Lipulekh-Kalapani area. Nepalese media quoted Oli as saying that ‘real Ayodhya’ is in Nepal and ‘Lord Ram is Nepali, not Indian’. India has handed over a diplomatic note to Nepal over the map issue, Nepalese media reports said.
We condemned Nepal PM’s controversial statement over Lord Ram,” said Gajendra Gurung, Indore president of Nepali Sanskriti Parishad, adding that the Nepali community should not be made part of any politics. “We support India. The Nepali community has written to the Nepal government to register our protest against Oli’s remark,” he said. “The political statement has raised security concerns for Nepali community here,” he remarked. Gurung said Indore is ‘second home’ to around 31,000 Nepali nationals, who have been here for generations and are handsomely contributing to its growth. “Two days ago, a Nepali national’s head was tonsured in Varanasi. We worship Lord Ram and other Hindu deities. We have registered our protest against Oli’s comment, but such incidents create safety concerns for us,” Gurung added.
Even as ties between India and Nepal continue to be strained, Nepali PM KP Oli has stirred a controversy by claiming that Lord Ram was Nepali. Now the Nepal Foreign Ministry has recently stated to clarify the remark made by Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli on Lord Ram, saying that the comment was not meant to debase the significance of Ayodhya and the cultural value it bears. “The remarks made by the Prime Minister are not linked to any political subject and have no intention at all to hurt the feeling and sentiment of anyone. As there have been several myths and references about Shree Ram and the places associated with him, the Prime Minister was simply highlighting the importance of further studies and research of the vast cultural geography the Ramayana represents to obtain facts about Shri Ram, Ramayana and the various places linked to this rich civilization,” read the statement.
By Karishma G.
