Smriti Irani Reaches Amethi, Rahul Gandhi Postpones Plans

Union minister Smriti Irani blamed the Congress on Friday for “creating hurdles” in the judicial process in the Ram temple case through its lawyers and said ‘Ram bhakts’ should ask the party about it. “Congress should not do politics through its lawyers on the Ram temple issue, which is a matter of faith for people. Its leaders, as lawyers, are creating hurdles in the court. People and Ram bhakts should ask the party whether its leader wore ‘janeu’ (sacred thread) only for the polls in three states,” she said.

Her reference was to senior Congress leader and lawyer Kapil Sibal, who had urged the Supreme Court to defer the hearing of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute case until after the 2019 general election. She made the comment hours after the apex court said an appropriate bench constituted by it will pass an order on January 10 to fix the date of hearing in the case. Irani was visiting Amethi, about 140km from the state capital Lucknow, and said this when talking to reporters ahead of Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s scheduled two-day visit to his Lok Sabha constituency, which was later cancelled as he was in Lok Sabha for a debate on the Rafale fighter jet controversy.”My two-day trip to Amethi that had to begin from today has been postponed for January 22-23. I am sorry for the inconvenience caused by this delay,” he said in a Facebook post.