“Ram Is Our Family God, I Am His Devotee”: Congress MLA Iqbal Hussain

Bengaluru:

Karnataka Congress MLA HA Iqbal Hussain on Thursday said Ram is his ‘family God’ and he is his devotee.

The legislator from Ramanagara also said he will celebrate ‘Ramotsava’ in a “grand but secular way”.

“I’ve already said I’m a Ram devotee. I worship all Gods and welcome them. There is no second thought about that,” Mr Hussain told reporters.

He added that he has been worshipping Goddesses Saraswati and Lakshmi and Gods Ganesh and Ram since his childhood.

“I have decided to celebrate ‘Ramotsava’ with devotion with all the political parties in a grand but secular way,” Mr Hussain said.

On the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, he said, “Some people do something for their political gain but Congress never uses God and religion to divide people.”

“Congress has an ideology, commitment and discipline, which I follow,” he added.

To a query on the consecration ceremony at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya in an election year, he merely said: “It is left to them (BJP).”

“We worship all the Gods, including Ram. For them, it could be new, but not for us. For us, Ram is our family God and we have a puja room. They are using Ram for politics. We are not,” Mr Hussain said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)