Manish Tewari calls for talks over Congress' ideology amid NSUI's Ram Temple fund raising

Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Manish Tewari on Friday said that Ram Temple fund collection by party's student wing National Students' Union of India (NSUI) underscores once again for a "candid and conceptual" discussion within Congress party on a host of core ideological issues.

Anandpur Sahib MP's comments comes days after NSUI's Rajasthan president Abhishek Chaudhary launched a collection drive named 'Rs 1 Ram Ke Naam' at Commerce College at Jawaharlal Nehru Road in Jaipur.  party had to distance itself from it claiming that it is a secular party. 

'Does Secularism mean...'

Taking to Twitter, Manish Tewari shared a media report about incident and asked, "As INC is a secular party: Does Secularism mean separation of Church and State or Sarv Dharam Sambhav?"

Congress distances itself from NSUI drive

campaign was launched on Tuesday to collect money from students for construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, claiming that BJP and ABVP have been looting people in name of raising fund for temple. 

About fund-raising campaign for Ram Temple, NSUI spokesperson Ramesh Bhati said, " ABVP and BJP have been looting people in name of contribution for Ram Mandir. We will oppose this with our initiative because Ram temple is a matter of faith for all and taking lakhs and crores of rupees from people is wrong."

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Around 100 members of student wing of Congress party collected contributions from students in college in three sealed boxes on first day. All colleges in state will be covered under this 15-day campaign and NSUI will hand over amount collected during initiative to Ram temple authorities in Ayodhya, Bhati said.

Asked about NSUI's fundraising campaign, Congress national treasurer Bansal in PCC office said he was t aware of it. He alleged way, BJP has conducted itself after foundation stone laying for temple, it appears it wanted to usurp all credit for temple construction.

"That is why when people approached me for contribution to Ram temple construction, I gave thing," he said. "Congress is a secular party. We are religious and religion is matter of personal faith. I am a Hindu as far as personal faith is concerned, but in public matter, we act as per mandate of Constitution," he said.

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(With PTI inputs)