Union minister Smriti Irani blamed the Congress Friday for "creating hurdle" 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 Ram temple issue, which is a matter of faith of people. It's leaders, as lawyers, are creating hurdle in the court. People and Ram bhakts should ask the party whether its leader wore 'janeu' only for polls in three states," she said.
Her reference was to senior Congress leader and lawyer Kapil Sibal, who had sought deferment of hearing of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute case until after the 2019 general election.
Irani is on a day's visit to Congress president Rahul Gandhi's parliamentary constituency and was talking to mediapersons on way to Amethi, about 140km from the state capital Lucknow.
Attacking Gandhi for apparently delaying his visit to Amethi by a few hours, she said, "His coming late in maidan-e-jang (battlefield) of Amethi is an indication that the person who cannot visit his constituency on time cannot give timely solutions."
"Jo paanch saal me ek baar aatey they, ab baar baar aana pad raha hai" (The person who used to visit his constituency once in five years is coming here again and again)," she said.
Irani said such was the pace of development in Amethi, thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress leader felt nervous and was making frequent visits to the constituency to counter it.
She accused Gandhi of doing nothing for his constituency, which he has been representing for the past 15 years.
"If Rahul had done so much for Amethi, why his party lost in so many assembly segments of the Lok Sabha constituency in the 2017 assembly polls," she asked.
"Rahul speaks of development, but could not ensure it in his own constituency. In fact, he could not even get a CT Scan machine installed in Amethi, which the BJP government is doing today," she said.
Irani on Friday inaugurated a computerised tomography (CT) Scan facility in a state-run hospital here. "I want to thank the people of Amethi. The constituency witnessed development under the leadership of Modi. I remember that in 2014, he (Rahul) had to run to booths for votes," she said.
Irani said, "Why was Rahul silent when Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath spoke against UP and Bihar people working in that state. "How will he see people eye to eye in Amethi today?"
On the Rafale deal controversy, she said Gandhi and his party, the Congress, were indulging in "politics of lies" and asserted that the Supreme Court has already given its verdict on it.
