Rajnath Singh Claims Nehru Planned Babri Masjid Reconstruction With Public Funds; Opposition Calls Statement ‘Baseless’
Congress and historians reject the Defence Minister’s remarks, saying no archival record supports the allegation.
Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on December 2, 2025, claimed that Jawaharlal Nehru had proposed building the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya using public funds, a plan he said was thwarted by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
Addressing a “Unity March” gathering near Vadodara, Singh said, “Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru wanted to build the Babri Masjid using public funds. If anyone opposed this proposal, it was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. He didn’t allow the Babri Masjid to be built using public money.”
He also said that when Nehru raised the restoration of the Somnath Temple, Patel clarified that the temple rebuild was funded by public donations, not state money, implying a contrast with the supposed Muslim-institution funding plan. “Not a single penny of the government’s money was spent on this (Somnath temple) work,” Singh claimed.
The statement soon drew outrage from opposition parties and many other civil society groups. The Indian National Congress (INC) and several opposition leaders rejected Singh’s statements as baseless and politically motivated. INC MP Manickam Tagore posted on X that there is “zero archival or documentary evidence to support” the claim.
“Nehru ji explicitly opposed using government money for religious places, including the reconstruction of temples,” he said. “They do not have evidence of it, this is a lie told by Rajnath Singh ji.”
Congress spokespersons also called the claim a “WhatsApp-university story” and accusing the BJP of rewriting history to foster communal polarisation.
Historians and archival researchers also cast doubt on the allegation. According to contemporary letters and public records from Nehru and Patel, no documented decision or proposal exists indicating that the government ever planned to use state funds to rebuild the Babri Masjid.
