'A complete lie': Congress hits back at Rajnath Singh over Nehru-Babri Masjid remark

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s remark that former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru wanted to build Babri Masjid with government funds has drawn a sharp reaction from the Congress party, which termed the statement ‘a complete lie’.

Congress MP Manickam Tagore said Nehru's firm stand was that public funds should never be used for constructing religious places. 

"It is a complete lie by Rajnath Singh ji. 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,” he told ANI news agency.

On Tuesday, while addressing an event in Gujarat’s Vadodara, Singh said that Nehru wanted to use government funds to build Babri Masjid, but it was the then home minister, Sadar Vallabhbhai Patel, who opposed the idea.

"Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was truly secular. He never believed in appeasement. When Jawaharlal Nehru spoke about spending government funds on the Babri Masjid issue, if anyone opposed it, it was the one born in Gujarat, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. At that time, he did not allow the Babri Masjid to be built with government money," Singh said.

The minister also claimed that when Nehru questioned the construction of the Somnath temple, Patel clarified to him that the temple was being constructed with donations from the public instead of government money.

Manickam, in a post on X on Wednesday morning, rejected Singh’s claims, saying there has been no archival or documentary evidence to support them.

“Nehruji explicitly opposed using government money for religious places—including the reconstruction of the Temple. He insisted it should be funded through public contributions, not the state," Tagore posted on X.