Days before the mega Ram temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya to be attended by top leaders, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Jitendra Awhad has provoked a controversy with his comment that “Lord Ram was a non-vegetarian”.

Mr Awhad, who belongs to the Sharad Pawar camp of the NCP, made the comment at an event in Maharashtra’s Shridi on Wednesday.

“Lord Ram belongs to us, Bahujans. He used to hunt and eat animals. He is a Bahujan. They are trying to make everyone a vegetarian by giving Lord Ram’s example. But Lord Ram was not a vegetarian, he was a non-vegetarian. A person who has stayed in the forest for 14 years – where will he go to find vegetarian food?” Mr Awhad said, referring to the years Lord Ram spent in the forests in the Hindu epic Ramayana.

The comment, which comes ahead of the grand consecration of the new Ram temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya later this month, has sparked a massive controversy, with some seeking action against him for hurting religious sentiments.

A large group of supporters of the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP turned up outside Mr Awhad’s Mumbai home on Wednesday night and shouted slogans against him.

The police have deployed extra personnel in front of Mr Awhad’s house.

Led by BJP MLA Ram Kadam, the protesters said they will march to the nearest police station and file a case against the NCP MLA over his comments that hurt the sentiments of Hindus.

“All devotees of Lord Ram will file a police case against Jitendra Awhad,” Mr Kadam said. “If Balasaheb were alive, today’s Saamana newspaper would have spoken harshly to those who called Lord Ram a non-vegetarian,” Mr Kadam said in a post on X, referring to the Shiv Sena’s mouthpiece.

“But what is the reality today? Anyone can say anything about Lord Ram; anyone can make fun of Hindus. They don’t care. They are as cold as ice. But come elections, they will talk about Hindutva,” the BJP MLA said.

Mr Awhad, however, did not stop at Lord Ram. He pressed on and opened another controversy with his comment that India got independence only because of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.

“No matter what someone says, the truth is that we got independence only because of Gandhi and Nehru. Gandhi ji was not assassinated in 1947, but the first attack on him took place in 1935, the second in 1938, and the third in 1942,” Mr Awhad said.

“After all, why did they attack him so many times… because Gandhi ji was a tradesman and an OBC (Other Backward Classes). The fact that the leader of such a big independence movement was an OBC was not acceptable to them (RSS),” the MLA of the Sharad Pawar NCP faction said, referring to the BJP’s ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

In Ayodhya, the local authorities and the police are making arrangements for the anticipated surge in visitors around the Ram temple consecration ceremony. Security has been tightened and measures are in place to ensure the temple’s consecration event goes smoothly.

Amid claims by his party of his possible arrest by the Enforcement Directorate today, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP Chief Arvind Kejriwal has alleged that summons were issued to him so that he cannot campaign for the Lok Sabha elections. He said no corruption had taken place in the Delhi liquor policy case and reiterated his party’s claims that the BJP is trying to arrest him. 

“You must have heard about the liquor policy scam several times in the past two years. In these two years, all of the BJP’s agencies have carried out several raids and arrested several people, but they haven’t been able to find corruption amounting to even a single paisa. If there has actually been corruption, where have all the crores gone? Has all the money vanished into thin air,” the Chief Minister asked in Hindi. 

Mr Kejriwal claimed that no corruption had taken place at all, and pointed out that money would have been found if that hadn’t been the case. 

Hitting out at the BJP, the AAP chief, who has skipped three summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate, said, “They have jailed several AAP leaders in this fictitious case. There is no evidence against anyone and nothing is being proven… They are just putting anyone in jail. Now the BJP wants to arrest me. My biggest asset is my honesty and they are trying to tarnish my reputation by levelling false allegations and issuing baseless summons.”

“My lawyers have told me that the summons are illegal, and I have laid out the reasons for this in detail in letters to the Enforcement Directorate. But they have not responded to a single reason, indicating that they don’t have any answers… The BJP’s intent is not investigation, they want to make sure that I cannot campaign for the Lok Sabha elections. The investigation has been going on for two years but they have summoned me right before the elections. Why didn’t they summon me before,” he asked.

Pointing out that he had appeared before the CBI when the agency had summoned him eight months ago, Mr Kejriwal said the notice by the Enforcement Directorate two months before the elections indicates that the BJP wants to get him arrested in the guise of questioning.

‘Trying To Break Up Parties’

Repeating an allegation made several times by his party and its allies in the INDIA bloc, the AAP chief said the ruling party is not going after the corrupt but simply trying to break up parties using central agencies so that it can get their leaders to join the BJP. 

“There have been several instances of leaders of opposition parties facing cases by Central agencies or serious allegations which are then closed or put in cold storage when they join the BJP… Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and Vijay Nair are not in jail because they indulged in corruption, but because they refused to join the BJP,” he said. 

“The country can’t progress if they put honest leaders in jail and induct the corrupt into their party… This is wrong for our democracy. We need to stop this,” he added.

Police have intensified efforts to arrest two to three other individuals allegedly involved in the murder of 27-year-old model Divya Pahuja. Divya, who had recently secured bail in connection with the alleged fake encounter of Gurugram’s most-wanted gangster, Sandeep Gadoli, was found shot dead in a Gurugram hotel on Wednesday.

Three people have been arrested so far, including the prime suspect Abhijeet Singh, the owner of the hotel, and two others identified as Hemraj and Omprakash.

According to the police, Singh accused Divya of extortion, alleging that she had been threatening him with compromising pictures. However, Divya’s family vehemently denies these charges. 

CCTV footage from the hotel showed Singh, along with his accomplices, dragging Divya’s body, wrapped in a white sheet, through the lobby of Hotel City Point to a BMW car. After this, Singh called two- three other individuals who took the car away, along with Divya’s body. 

When police scanned the CCTV visuals and arrested Singh, the prime accused, he spilled the beans, leading to Hemraj and Omprakash’s arrests.

A massive hunt is on to track down the two or three others involved in the case and to recover Divya’s body, police said.