Nepal PM claims Hindu deity Rama was Nepali, not Indian

KHATMANDU: Nepali PM KP Sharma Oli has stirred a controversy by claiming that Hindu diety Rama was a Nepali.

"Lord Rama’s kingdom Ayodhya is located west of Birgunj in Nepal and India has created a disputed Ayodhya," said Nepal Prime Minister KP Oli on Monday. Speaking on the occasion of Bhanu Jayanti at the Prime Minister’s residence, he said, “We are under the misconception that Sita married Rama of India. But Rama was not Indian but Nepali".

This year Bhanu Jayanti marks 206th birth anniversary of Nepal’s great poet Bhanubhakta Acharya who translated Valmiki Ramayan in Nepali, reported foreign media.

Alleging that India encroached the cultural facts of Nepal, Oli said that India has created a “fake Ayodhya”. “Lord Rama’s kingdom was not in Uttar Pradesh but in Nepal, near Balmiki Ashram,” said Oli.

Oli, the PM of the Hindu-majority nation claimed that Ayodhya was located in the west of Janakpur at Balmiki Ashram in a place called Thori near Birgunj in Nepal. He added that the Valmiki Ashram in Thori belonged to Panditji Ridi who performed the Putrishti Yajna for Dashratha, Lord Rama’s father, to bless him with a son. “That place also belongs to Nepal,” he said.

He added that a place called Balmiki Nagar is presently in West Champaran district of Bihar, some part of which is also in Nepal. He questioned how Ayodhya came to Janakpur to marry Sita if it was in the place claimed by India. “How did residents of the Ayodhya- which India claims is in Uttar Pradesh- come to Janakpur to marry Sita? At that time there were no phones so how did they communicate? During those times, marriages were arranged in nearby kingdoms only. No one used to travel so far to marry,” said Oli.

He further said, “There is a huge controversy in their Ayodhya while our Ayodhya, that lies in the Thori village, has no issues as such”.