KATHMANDU, July 14: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday accused India of creating an artificial Ayodhya by manipulating the cultural facts.

Speaking at a program organized to mark the 206th birth anniversary of  first Nepali poet Bhanu Bhakta Acharya at his official residence in Baluwatar,  PM Oli claimed that Ayodhya lies in Nepal, not India. "We have been suppressed culturally. Facts have been twisted. Even today, we believe that Sita was married to an Indian prince, Ram. We gave her not to an Indian, but to the one from Ayodhya. Ayodhya is a village that lies to the west of Birgunj," he claimed.

PM Oli further said that the Ayodhya that has been created in India is not the real Ayodhya. "There is a fierce debate about Ayodhya. In fact, Ayodhya lies in Thori, which is west of Nepal's Birgunj, and the Pandit who performed Putresthi Yagya [i.e. a religious ceremony organized to seek the God's blessings to have children] after there were no children from King Darsharath was from Ridi [in Nepal]," he said. "Therefore, the child [Ram] is also not Indian. The place [Ayodhya] is not in India either."

PM Oli also wondered how it would have been possible for a king living in a far away place to arrive in Janakpur to marry his son with a princess if Ayodhya was a place claimed by the Indian side. He wondered  how it was possible to travel such a long distance as there was no availability of modern transport and communication systems.

"If Janakpur was here and Ayodhya was there [ in India], how would one know that there was a princess eligible for marriage. There was neither telephone, nor mobile phone. It was just impossible to know about the match," he said. 

Prime Minister Oli argued that the marriage might have taken place as these two places were not far from each other. "But it is not possible to debate here. There could be one attack after another," he further said. 

 
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