"This Is A Lie": Congress Snaps At Rajnath Singh's Nehru-Babri Masjid Jab

The Congress has responded sharply to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's jibe about Jawaharlal Nehru wanting to restore the Babri Masjid - the demolished 16th century Mughal mosque - using public funds.

In a post Wednesday on X, Congress leader Manickam Tagore called out the BJP's "lie" and said there is "zero archival or documentary evidence to support" the claim.

"Nehruji explicitly opposed using government money for religious places - including the reconstruction of temples. He insisted it should be funded through public contributions, not the state," he said.

"If Nehruji refused public funds even for Somnath (a famous temple in Gujarat) - a symbol revered by millions - why would he propose spending taxpayer money on Babri?" Tagore declared.

Screengrab from post on X by @manickamtagore

The Congress' snapback followed comments by Singh at an event near Vadodara to mark the 150th birth anniversary of India's 'Iron Man', ex-Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

Singh declared then, "Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru wanted to (re-)build the Babri Masjid (in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya) using public funds. If anyone opposed this proposal, it was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, born to a Gujarati mother. He did not allow the Babri Masjid to be built using public funds."

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Work on the temple, however, was carried out with donations from the public, Singh claimed.

"A trust had been established. Not a single penny of government money was spent on this (Somnath temple) work. Similarly, the government didn't give a single rupee to construct the Ram temple in Ayodhya. The entire cost was borne by the people. This is called real secularism," the BJP leader said.

Tagore hit back at those remarks.

"Rajnathji's statements aren't about history. They're about politics - rewriting the past to divide the present. The BJP's strategy is simple: insult our founders, invent stories, fuel polarisation."

Tagore also rubbished Singh, who criticised "some forces" for trying to erase Patel's legacy.

"After Patel died, common people collected funds to build a memorial for him, but when this information reached Nehruji, he said Sardar Patel was a leader of farmers, so this money should be spent on building wells and roads in the village," Singh had said.

"What a farce! Building wells and roads is the government's responsibility. The suggestion of using memorial funds for that was absurd," the minister said.

Tagore hit back by asserting, "We all know that Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel had a cordial relationship, and Pandit Nehru's logic was simple: public money should not be spent on mosques, temples, churches, or gurudwaras. It should be people's contribution..."