Rahul’s Name in Somnath Temple’s Non-Hindu List: Why Is That News?

An image of both Rahul Gandhi’s and Cong leader Ahmed Patel’s names in the non-Hindu temple register has gone viral.

Rahul Gandhi in Gujarat’s Somnath Temple.

(Photo Courtesy: INC/Twitter)

In what seems to be a major goof up, Congress VP Rahul Gandhi's name has been entered in the register of non-Hindu visitors at Gujarat’s renowned Somnath Temple.

An image that shows both Rahul Gandhi's and senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel's names in the non-Hindu temple register is doing the rounds.

(Photo: ANI)

While Twitter has raked up the controversy, the question at large is why at all does a temple warrant lists for different religions.

According to the temple's norms, non-Hindu visitors have to obtain a special permission from the temple authorities before entering, reported The Indian Express.

Congress Claims It Is a Fabrication

In the meantime, Congress retaliated saying that it wasn't Rahul Gandhi who signed the register and said it was fake. Congress, however, issued a clarification on its official twitter handle blaming BJP of resorting to ‘desperate measures at desperate times.’The clarification read:

Holding up a copy of the visitor’s book, Deependra Hooda, Congress Spokesperson told reporters:

Here is the original signature of Rahul Gandhi at Somnath Temple. Very clearly. The other signature is written as ‘Rahul Gandhi ji’, why would he write ‘ji’? Don’t know who wrote it. BJP doing what it does best, diverting from real issues.

Hooda also said, “The entire country knows that Rahul Gandhi is a staunch Shiv 'bhakt'. Now, Rahul ji being an ardent Shiv bhakt believes in the path of truth and truth is with us. So we shall prevail.”

Hooda alleged that to save themselves from the questions by the public on governance, they are trying to bring about polarisation in this election.

Wherever Rahul ji is going, he has led a courageous campaign against the mighty BJP which is using all means - muscle and money power and government power and all other means at its disposal. That is why BJP is looking for such issues to divert the attention of people from its own governance failure.

Deependra Hooda, Congress Spokesperson told reporters

The Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said Gandhi, during his recent trips to Gujarat, declared he was a devotee of Lord Shiva.

You may want to know which religion Rahul Gandhi follows? I would like to tell you that he is a janeu-dhari Hindu.

Randeep Surjewala

Rahul Gandhi Should Declare His Religious Faith Before People: BJP

BJP spokesperson Raju Dhruv insisted that Rahul Gandhi makes his faith clear to the people of this country after the controversy.

BJP national spokesman Sambit Patra rejected the Congress' conspiracy charge as "baseless".

Rahul, in his affidavit to the Election Commission has shown different things and in the Somnath temple he is showing different things. He should come clean.

Sambit Patra, BJP National spokesperson.

"Rahul may belong to any religion, we do not have any problem. We respect him. But the people of the country will get confused with this controversy," Patra said.

What Really Happened?

However, senior journalist Brajesh K Singh’s tweet might help us understanding what actually happened.

India Today reported that Congress' media coordinator Manoj Tyagi has also issued a statement saying:

I entered just my name in the register to take media personnel inside the Somnath Temple. Neither Rahul Gandhi’s nor Ahmed Patel’s names were there in the register then. These would have been added later.”

However, Dhruv Joshi, Public Relation Officer of the Somnath Trust said that Manoj Tyagi was the one who entered both Rahul and Patel’s names in the register, as reported by India Today. According to the report, Joshi said:

Ahmed Patel and Rahul Gandhi’s names were entered in the non-Hindu register by Rahul’s media coordinator Manoj Tyagi. As per rule, it’s compulsory to make such an entry at the security point close to the entry gate for all the non-Hindu entrants.

Temple Trustee Issues Clarification

As the controversy raged, the temple management came out with a clarification.

As per our rules, names of non-Hindus have to be registered. His (Gandhi’s) name was registered by his media coordinator in our non-Hindu register. I would like to say that no staff member of our trust was involved in what the media coordinator did.

Managing trustee of Somnath Temple Trust P K Lehri.

Lehri also said in the visitor's book, Gandhi wrote that the Somnath temple is an "inspiring" place.

Rahul Gandhi was visiting the Somnath temple as a part of the Gujarat Navsarjan Temple. His long line of temple visits has come under flak several times from BJP who says this is a pre-poll stunt.

According to a report in The Times of India, PM Modi said at a rally in nearby Prachi, “Today some people are remembering Somnath, I have to ask them - Have you forgotten your history? Your family members, our first Prime Minister, was not happy with the idea of a temple being built there.”

Gujarat is going to polls in two phases on 9 December and 14 December.

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