Ayodhya: A purported video of fish being cooked at a Nishad community event in Ayodhya is at the centre of a snowballing row with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adiyanath accusing state Congress chief Ajay Rai of partaking of the feast and the opposition leader challenging him to show evidence of it.
The attack against Rai was two pronged. First, that the feast, held on Sunday, August 23, was in Ayodhya, where non-vegetarian food is banned within a 15-kilometre radius of the Ram temple. Second, that it was during the Hindu holy month of Shravan (or Sawan) when many devout don’t eat any meat.
Rai had visited the Hanumangarhi temple and recited the Hanuman Chalisa before offering prayers at the Ram temple and travelling to Tarun, around 30 km away in Ayodhya district, where the local Nishad community meeting was held.
Addressing a programme in Raebareli, Adiyanath lashed out at Rai and said, “You saw the conduct of the Congress state president yesterday. He goes to Hanumangarhi for darshan and, after coming out, enjoys a fish feast and then shouts ‘Ram-Ram’. There is a limit to shamelessness.”
“Who asked you to go to the temple? You could have eaten whatever you wanted outside Ayodhya.”
Hitting out at the Congress, he went on to say that even a chameleon would be embarrassed by this kind of behaviour.
“It too must be wondering what kind of species we have become in human form — we shout ‘Ram-Ram’ in the temple, prostrate before Bajrang Bali, but then go outside and enjoy a fish feast,” the chief minister said.
BJP Uttar Pradesh president Pankaj Chaudhary added in a post on X that “insulting Sanatan has now become Congress’ identity”. He also termed the alleged fish feast during Sawan in Ayodhya “highly condemnable and unforgivable” and alleged that the Congress had repeatedly hurt the religious beliefs and cultural values of Hindus.
He demanded that the Congress publicly apologise to Ayodhya’s community of religious leaders and the people of the country.
Rai, who attended the event also attended by other Congress leaders as part of the party’s outreach to the Nishad community ahead of the 2027 assembly elections, was equally vehement in his rebuttal.
He dared the chief minister to produce any photograph or video to prove he had consumed fish or was present where it was cooked and said he would apologise and resign as UP Congress president if this was proven.
“But if there is no evidence, then Adityanath ji you will have to resign as chief minister. You will not even remain worthy of sitting in the math (as the Gorakshapeethadhishwar). You will not have any respect there either, and you will have to go home,” Rai told PTI Videos.
The Uttar Pradesh Congress, in a post on X, accused the BJP government of “only lying and misleading the people” and pointed out that fishing, rearing and selling fish was part of the lifestyle and culture of the Nishad community.
The same community that ferried Lord Ram across the river was now being insulted by the BJP government, it said and warned that the Nishad community would not forget the insult.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera also defended the event, saying the hosts belonged to the Nishad community and had their own food traditions.
“Who were the hosts of this programme? They were people from the Nishad community, and they have their own traditions of eating and drinking. Who am I to comment on their traditions?” Khera told PTI Videos in Delhi.
He added, “Ajay Rai is a vegetarian person, and I do not want to comment on his eating habits.”
Questioning the controversy over people’s food choices and their ways of life, Khera alleged that it was a ploy to divert attention from the alleged misappropriation of donations to the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
