UPA Rift Widens, Lalu Blames Cong for Babri Demolition
With the secular parties a divided house, skirmishes over Bihar’s minority Muslim votes intensified on Friday as RJD chief Lalu Prasad, after five years as a minister in the UPA, attacked the Congress for doing nothing to prevent the demolition of the Babri Masjid structure at Ayodhya in 1992.
Accusing the grand old party for being partly responsible for the demolition Lalu voters “Babri masjid was razed to the ground and Congress too is responsible for it as it did nothing to prevent it,” he was addressing an election meeting at Manhgachi in Bihar’s Darbhanga district.
A Congress government led by then prime minister PV Narasimha Rao was in power at the Centre at the time of the demolition of the disputed structure by right-wing activists.
“If anyone continues to talk nonsense, I will reveal more,” he was quoted as saying but refused to dwell further on the subject.
Under massive electoral pressures, Lalu, who recently faced flak from the Election Commission for his infamous ‘roller’ remarks termed the BJP ‘Bharat Jalao Party’ and said it wished to see the country “up in flames.”
Lalu Prasad’s remarks push the estranged RJD-Congress relationship down another few notches after cracks in the alliance first appeared over failed seat sharing talks between the partners.
