New Delhi: Days after stopping the transmission of Indian private news channels, Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday made a controversial claim, saying Lord Ram’s birthplace was in Nepal and not in India.
He further went on to say that India has taken the cultural encroachment by ‘creating a fake Ayodhya’.
Speaking during a program on the occasion of Bhanu Jayanti at PM’s residence, PM Oli stated that some distortion of facts could have gone in the claim of India’s Ayodhya as the birthplace of Lord Ram.
“Although the real Ayodhya lies at Thori in the west of Birgunj, India have claimed the Indian site as the birthplace of Lord Ram,” PM Oli said.
Real Ayodhya lies in Nepal, not in India. Lord Ram is Nepali not Indian: Nepali media quotes Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli (file pic) pic.twitter.com/k3CcN8jjGV
— ANI (@ANI) July 13, 2020
He also said that Nepal believes that deity Sita got married to Prince Ram of India. Actually, Ayodhya is a village lying west of Birgunj, he added.
Saying that there is dispute over the location of Ayodhya, Oli said the actual Ayodhya is not the place it is claimed to be.
“Ayodhya is at Thori, west of Birgunj, Balmiki Ashram is in Nepal and the holy place where King Dasharath had executed the rites to get the son is in Ridi,” he said.
However, Oli added that the scholars could turn heavily against him listening to this ‘new fact’.
Earlier this month, Nepal stopped the transmission of all Indian private news channels except Doordarshan, accusing them of airing reports hurting the country’s national sentiment.
The development comes after some Indian channels aired reports critical of Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli and his government.
The India-Nepal bilateral ties came under strain after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a 80-km-long strategically crucial road connecting the Lipulekh pass with Dharchula in Uttarakhand on May 8.
