NEW DELHI: Senior Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Ram Gopal Yadav courted controversy on Monday as he allegedly abused Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud over his “praying to God for Ram Mandir solution” remark.
When asked about the CJI’s statement recalling how he went on to deliver the verdict in the complex Ram Mandir case, the Samajwadi Party MP said: “When you bring the dead back to life, they turn into ghosts and haunt the public.Many people talk like this, should I take notice of them”.
On Sunday, Chandrachud shared his personal experience dealing with the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute and disclosed that he prayed to God for a solution.
During a felicitation ceremony in his native village of Kanhersar, the CJI revealed that he had sought divine intervention to pass a verdict in the decades-old case that had been before him for three months.
Ram Gopal Yadav, however, backtracked from his statement, saying that “nobody asked him any question about the CJI”.
The SP leader’s clarification came after his statement blew up in major controversy, with BJP calling Ram Gopal Yadav’s remark “disregard for the judiciary”.
Amit Malviya, BJP’s I-T department head, said the SP leader should “be booked for contempt of Court in this instance”.
The pain of seeing a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, after 500 years of struggle, is unbearable for these so called ‘secularists’, Malviya further wrote on X.
“Ram Gopal Yadav has used derogatory language regarding the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, which reflects a disregard for the judiciary. This behaviour shows that the Samajwadi Party does not trust the Constitution of the country or its independent judiciary and resorts to abusive language. It is very unfortunate and condemnable. The Samajwadi Party should take strict action against Ram Gopal Yadav”, BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi told news agency IANS.
CJI Chandrachud was part of the five-judge bench, headed by then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, that delivered the historic verdict on November 9, 2019.
The bench settled the long-standing dispute by paving the way for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya while also ruling that a mosque would be built on an alternative five-acre plot in the same city.
CJI Chandrachud had also visited the Ram Temple in Ayodhya in July this year and offered prayers. The idol consecration of the temple took place on January 22, 2023, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.