Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Tuesday criticised the statement made by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat that Bharat (India) got its “true independence” on the consecration ceremony day of the Ram temple at Ayodhya, saying that Bhagwat must avoid doing “politics” in the name of Lord Ram.

“What Mohan Bhagwat has said is wrong because ‘Ram Lalla’ has been in this nation for lakhs of years. We have carried out movements for Ram Lalla earlier and we will keep at it. He should not do politics in the name of Ram Lalla. The ‘Pran Pratishtha’ (consecration) ceremony is the nation’s pride, and there were contributions by everyone. While the RSS chief is definitely a respected person, he is not the architect of the Constitution. He doesn’t make the law and he can’t change it,” Sanjay Raut said.

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RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat made a statement that “After India got political independence from the British on August 15, 1947, a written Constitution was made according to the path shown by that specific vision, which comes out of the ‘self’ of the country, but the document was not run according to the spirit of the vision at that time. The date of the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ of the Ram temple at Ayodhya must be celebrated as ‘Pratishtha Dwadashi’, the true independence of Bharat”.

According to the Hindu calendar, the consecration of the Ram Temple took place on “Dwadashi” of “Shukla Paksha” of the Paush month last year. According to the Gregorian calendar, that date was on January 22, 2024. However, this year, the Paush Shukla Paksha Dwadashi fell on January 11, 2025, a few days before January 26, which is India’s Republic Day.

Ironically, Raut’s statement criticising the RSS chief has come after he stated in Nagpur recently that a future political alliance with the BJP, the political arm of the RSS, cannot be ruled out.

On Saturday, Raut had said that BJP and the Shiv Sena were allies for 25 years. “Even before Fadnavis came into politics, the Shiv Sena and the BJP were friends. The Shiv Sena was the BJP’s most trustworthy ally, but the BJP kicked us. But still I think anything is possible in politics,” Raut said. When Raut was specifically asked if there could be a future tie-up with the BJP, Raut had replied in the affirmative.

However, on Tuesday, Raut said that he is confident about the survival of the INDIA bloc, despite growing tensions between Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) before the Delhi assembly elections.

“The INDIA alliance will survive. If we do not keep the INDIA alliance alive, the opposition will die. They (BJP) will eliminate the opposition. The INDIA alliance was formed for the Lok Sabha elections, but today it is a need of the nation and democracy to keep it intact,” Raut said.

Raut said that as the largest partner of the INDIA bloc, it is the responsibility of the Congress to lead efforts to preserve the unity of the INDIA bloc.