As political and religious leaders gear up for the approaching Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi foundation event, RTI activist Saket Gokhale had filed a petition before the Allahabad High Court seeking to restrain the bhoomi puja for the Ram Mandir. On Friday however, the PIL was dismissed.
Against this backdrop, the BJP has drawn a link between the RTI activist and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. National In-charge of Social Media - BJP Mahila Morcha, Priti Gandhi on Friday shared a picture of the two, urging people to "join the dots".
"Standing next to Rahul Gandhi is Saket Gokhale. He has filed a PIL in the Allahabad High Court seeking a stay on the Ram Mandir bhoomi poojan at Ayodhya," she wrote.
Gokhale for his part denies any such link, tweeting on Friday that the claims that his PIL had been instigated by the Congress were baseless. He has blamed the BJP and the RSS, and even included Home Minister Amit Shah in his allegations.
"So after appearing on Zee News this morning and saying that the Ram Mandir Bhumi Puja event in the middle of a pandemic is risky, I’ve started getting death threats on the phone from BJP and RSS workers. One of them said 'you’ll see our anger now'. This is how Amit Shah operates," Gokhale alleged.
He has also shared screengrabs of the the profanity laden and at times alarming comments purportedly from the comment section of his posts. Gokhale opines that "ANY gathering right now is a threat to public health".
"BJP and it’s propaganda channels are running a narrative that I filed a letter petition against the Ayodhya event on 'instigation of the Congress'. BJP is back to playing Mandir politics again. MHA Unlock 2.0 guidelines ban ALL gatherings - be it Eid or Ram Mandir," he alleged.
Not only the party, Gokhale seems to be indicating that even the government has not quite adhered to the norms. "Got 138 calls in the last 10 mins from BJP/RSS workers. Have their numbers. How did my number get out? Because MIB India sneakily published my RTI application without clouding my contact details. This was followed by a concerted campaign by Zee News," he alleged.
"No matter how many political twists the BJP gives, how many campaigns are run by Modi media, or how many threats I get from the sangh parivar: I will NEVER capitulate to Hindutva. India’s secularism and democracy are worth fighting for and dying for. I’ll keep doing the work I do," he reiterated in another post.
