New Delhi, Dec 6 (UNI) Union Minister and BJP leader Uma Bharti on Thursday accused the Congress Party of being the ``biggest hurdle’’ in the construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya.

Charging the Congress with playing ``divisive’’ and ``vote bank politics’’ on the issue, she said, ``I now see in hope in Rahul Gandhi’s shift from secularism to being a self-professed Kaul-Dattatreya Brahmin who is a Shiva devotee and who visited Kailash Mansarovar. This was not personal. It was meant to convey political message.’’

``Shiva used to invoke Rama. The Congress President should, therefore, honour the Hindu legacy he displayed. He should take to the streets and support an Ordinance and appeal to Hindus and Muslims to maintain peace in construction of Ram temple,’’ said Ms Bharti, alleged to be involved in Ram janmabhoomi matter.

Asserting that while the issue can be resolved by ``consensus, an Ordinance or an Act of Parliament’’, she expressed the apprehension that the Congress might be preparing to incite violence on the issue for electoral politics.

``The Congress neither believes in dialogue nor in the court.`Recently a lawyer associated with the party said in the Supreme Court that no decision should come before the 2019 elections,’’ she pointed out.

She said she did not support celebration of the day as ``Shaurya Diwas’’ but the freedom of expression is as much being misused as it was in the Kerala incident when a calf was slaughtered and consumed.

Ms Bharti said her party had never taken Ayodhya as a vote bank politics.

``After all BJP governments in the states were dismissed following the Babri demolition in 1992, we could have given up the issue but we never did. For us it is a matter of faith and I am committed to construction of a magnificent Ram temple in Ayodhya,’’ she said.
UNI GP SHK1813