Addressing an event in Maharashtra’s Shirdi on Wednesday, the NCP-Sharad Pawar faction leader has said, “Ram is ours, he is of the Bahujan. Ram used to hunt and eat. You want us to become vegetarians, but we consider him our ideal and eat mutton. He was not a vegetarian but a non-vegetarian.”
NCP leader and former Maharashtra minister Jitendra Awhad on Thursday tendered an apology for his remarks on Lord Ram ahead of the Ayodhya temple consecration ceremony on January 22.
Addressing an event in Maharashtra’s Shirdi on Wednesday, the NCP-Sharad Pawar faction leader has said, “Ram is ours, he is of the Bahujan. Ram used to hunt and eat. You want us to become vegetarians, but we consider him our ideal and eat mutton. He was not a vegetarian but a non-vegetarian.”
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He has also said that he “does not speak without research”, adding that the Hindu epic Ramayana mentions what he said.
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The remarks were criticised by the BJP with party MLA Ram Kadam filing a complaint against Awhad.
“Their mindset is to hurt the sentiments of Ram bhakts. They cannot make fun of Hindu religion to gather votes. The fact that Ram mandir has been built, has not gone down well with the ‘ghamandi’ (arrogant) alliance,” Kadam said in an apparent reference to opposition bloc INDIA.
As he received brickbats over the comments, the NCP leader tendered an apology. “I do not speak without research… I do not want to intensify, but if someone is hurt by what I said, then I apologise,” he said.
However, he added, “There have been numerous instances where I have delivered speeches, and I have never distorted anything in my speech. I do not wish to escalate this issue. But in Valmiki Ramayana, there are many ‘kand’ (books) in which there is Ayodhya kand, in which there is a shlok (verse) 102 which mentions it.”
Awhad, a close associate of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, is a three-time MLA from Mumbra-Kalwa in Thane district. In 2014, he served as Maharashtra’s cabinet minister for Medical Education and Horticulture. In 2019, he then served as Housing Minister of State in Uddhav Thackeray’s MVA government.
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