In a recent statement that stirred controversy, NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad claimed that Lord Ram, was a non-vegetarian. The comment was made during a gathering of party workers at the NCP’s study camp in Shirdi.
Huge controversy by NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad. Calls Shri Ram a Non Vegetarian.#Watch #ShriRam #NCP #SupremeCourt #TruckDriversProtest #ArvindKejriwal #MaharashtraPolitics #ShivsenaUBT #SharadPawar pic.twitter.com/aKay5mh7UU
— The Indian Bugle (@TheIndianBugle) January 4, 2024
Awhad argued, “Lord Ram was a king of Bahujans and a non-vegetarian. We don’t read history and forget everything in politics. Ram is ours. Of us Bahujans. Who used to hunt to eat… Ram was never a vegetarian. He was a non-vegetarian. How can a man who lived in the jungle for 14 years remain a vegetarian?”
The controversial remark came on the same day when BJP MLA Ram Kadam, a member of the ruling party, wrote to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Kadam urged the declaration of January 22, coinciding with the inauguration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, as a dry day. Additionally, he proposed a ban on non-vegetarian food for that day.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde recently expressed his commitment to the “liberation” of the centuries-old Haji Malang Dargah. Chandrahas Ketkar, one of the two trustees of the dargah’s three-member trust, responded to claims suggesting that the dargah is a temple. Ketkar stated, “Anyone claiming that the dargah is a temple is doing it for political mileage.”
He highlighted a 1954 Supreme Court case related to the control of the dargah within the Ketkar family. The court had observed that the dargah is a composite structure not governed by Hindu or Muslim law but by its own special custom or the general law of trusts. The Ketkar family has been managing the dargah for the past 14 generations.
