Stop politicising Ram Temple drive for political mileage: Champat Rai to Siddaramaiah and Kumaraswamy

Shri Ramjanmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust's General Secretary, Champat Rai, alleged that the opposition leaders are politicising the 'Samarpan Nidhi' drive for Ram Temple in Ayodhya for political mileage.

This comes as Janata Dal (S) leader HD Kumaraswamy alleged that households not contributing to the Ram Mandir collection drive were being marked and described his claim as "Nazi tactics".

"Volunteers collecting money for Ram Temple construction write down the name of households that do not donate. I do not know why they are marking the houses... RSS is doing what the Nazis did in Germany," Kumaraswamy said.

Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah said, "If they come to me for funds, then I will not give donations for the disputed Ram temple in Ayodhya. I will donate to the Ram temple being built somewhere else. Even though the matter has been settled, the dispute will always remain,"

Responding to the statements by two former chief ministers of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah and HD Kumaraswamy, Rai said, "he has sympathies for the narrow-minded opposition leaders."

"Donate for your village. And if you do not want to donate then who is upset with you for not donating? Can we ask everyone in this country? What is the need to made this statement? He wants publicity and wants to see his name in the paper," he added.

"We have heard these allegations of (being Nazis) since childhood. He is responding late to these remarks. If he has seen any markings, he should clean that up with a wet cloth. I have sympathies for him. These are low-level thinking and narrow-mindedness," said Rai.

The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader also added that he won't be able to put a number to the amount collected for Ram temple construction as banks are taking time to clear cheques.

"We are getting delayed replies from the bank. It is taking more than eight days to clear cheques. Will anyone believe it? But this is the fact and I have got the list. But everyone is working honestly. I have been. To say how much we have collected is just an estimate," said the leader.

The VHP functionary said that there have been 15 odd cases of digital fraud and have been reported.

"If I accept this, from April and May, I have registered 4 to 5 FIRs. This happened in Ayodhya. I forgave that boy as his future would have been destroyed. In Bilaspur, govt of Chhattisgarh took 'suo moto' action on one such complaint. But these are a handful we have received," said Rai.

He also spoke of a complaint made on Jan 30 against a fake website.

"They had our code, they just skipped one from the code. We made the complaint," he added.

The VHP is currently undertaking a drive along with other affiliates of RSS to source funds from 19 crores families across the country. The drive is coming to an end on February 27.

( With inputs from ANI )