After decades-long manoeuvers of dividing Hindus on caste, ‘Jitni aabadi utna haq’, language, and regional lines, the Congress party has even divided Hindu Gods. Addressing a media event in New Delhi on 28th September, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy said that North Indians are Aryans and devotees of Lord Ram, while South Indians are Dravidians and devotees of Lord Shiva. He went on to say that Lord Shiva is “God of the poor”, while Lord Ram is “God of the rich,” represented by the BJP.
“We are Dravidians. People here (north) are Aryans. We are devotees of Shiva. These are the devotees of Lord Ram. BJP stole Ram. It’s an emotion. It’s a sentiment. Gareeb logon ke bhagwaan hai Shiv ji, ameer logon ke bhagwaan hain Ram ji” (Shiva is the God of the poor, Ram is the God of the rich), CM Revanth Reddy said at the event organised by Pratidin Media Network.
Congress Telangana CM Revanth Reddy now creates a divide between Hindu gods in the context of the North-South divide?
— Megh Updates 🚨™ (@MeghUpdates) September 29, 2026
Shiva is the God of the poor
Rama is the God of the rich
We are devotees of Shiva,
North Indians are devotees of Rama
We are Dravidians,
Northerners…
Reddy also questioned why the BJP never raises the slogan “Har Har Mahadev” as frequently as “Jai Shri Ram” at public events.
Congress’s disdain for Lord Ram is old
Revanth Reddy’s remarks that Lord Ram is God of North Indians and the rich are merely a novel expression of the Congress party’s long-festering contempt for Lord Ram.
While Reddy described Lord Ram as God of the rich, his party has previously denied the existence of the Hindu deity.
In September 2007, the Central government run by Congress-led UPA-1 had said that there is no historical proof of Lord Ram’s existence.
An affidavit filed by the Congress-led government read, “Valmiki Ramayana and Ramcharitmanas admittedly form an important part of ancient Indian literature, but these cannot be said to be historical records to incontrovertibly prove the existence of the characters and occurrences of events depicted therein.”
The affidavit was filed to register the UPA government’s opposition to the demand to scrap the Sethusamudram project as it would damage the Ram Setu.
Senior Congress leader of the time, Kapil Sibal, fought the Ram Janmabhoomi case for the Sunni Waqf Board, opposing the building of a magnificent Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya. He also employed dilatory tactics and asked the apex court to delay the decision in the Ram Janmabhoomi case till the 2019 elections. Another eminent Congress leader, Shashi Tharoor, had earlier claimed that no ‘good Hindu’ would want a Ram Mandir at the Babri site. Tharoor urged that one should have the Ram Mandir in one’s heart.
Is Lord Ram really ‘God of the rich’ and Lord Shiva ‘God of the poor ‘?
While the Telangana CM Revanth Reddy treated Hindu deities as regional, racial, and class property, Hindu scriptures and traditions do not assign Lord Shiva to the poor and Lord Ram to the rich, or to Shiva to the South and Ram to the North.
Neither Hindu scriptures nor Hindus have divided their deities based on race or region. Lord Ram worshipped Lord Shiva. In fact, before the war in Lanka, scriptures state that Shri Ram prayed to Lord Shiv at Rameswaram, where now stands the Ramanathaswamy Temple, one of the 12 Jyotirlingas. Rameshwaram itself means Lord of Ram.
Besides the Yuddha Kanda of the Valmiki Ramayana, the Skanda Purana and other Hindu scriptures record Shri Ram seeking Mahadev’s grace. Lord Ram is the avatar of Lord Vishnu, who is also known as Rudreshwar, or the Ishwar of Rudra, or Lord Shiva.
From the humble Kevat, to tribal Nishad Raj and poor Mata Shabri, to rich Vibheeshana, Lord Ram touched many lives during his exile and never discriminated against his Bhakts based on their social status. His teachings and values are for the rich and the poor alike.
Telangana CM Revanth Reddy should answer the question: if Lord Ram is the God of the rich, why did he worship the God of the poor, Shiva?
Contrary to CM Reddy’s claim that Shiva is a South Indian God while Ram is a North Indian God, both deities are worshipped across classes and regions. Lord Shiva’s great centres, Kashi Vishwanath, Kedarnath, Somnath, and the Himalayan abdes, are overwhelmingly northern and central.
Even the annual pilgrimage Kanwar Yatra, wherein North Indian devotees carry sacred Ganga water to Shiva temples, is primarily a North Indian tradition.
Shaivism in the South is also very deep but is not exclusive. Similarly, Ram worship is not unknown in the South. In fact, some of the most intense traditions of Ram bhakti come from the South. Bhadrachalam in CM Reddy’s own state, Telangana, is known as Dakshina Ayodhya; the Tamil Kamba Ramayanam and the entire oeuvre of Tyagraja are all devoted to Bhagwan Ram. Festivals associated with Lord Ram are celebrated in the South, while festivals associated with Lord Shiva are also celebrated across the North.
Aryan-Dravidian framing lacks factual basis and is a tool used to divide Hindus
Coming to the Congress leader’s ‘Aryan-Dravidian’ framing, it is nothing but a 19th-century colonial construct. Modern genetics indicate a continuum of Ancestral North Indian and Ancestral South Indian ancestry across the Indian Subcontinent, not two races with separate Gods. The Indo-Aryan and Dravidian language families do not essentially map to exclusive religious or sectarian identities.
The Telugu-speaking Telangana itself houses both Vemulawada, the Dakshina Kashi, and Bhadrachalam, the Dakshina Ayodhya. The Chief Minister of that state invoking a racial-religious split is particularly outrageous.
Bharat, undisputably, is a land of immense regional, linguistic, and cultural diversity, yet what binds our motherland together is Hinduism and the Sanatan civilisation. Hindus, be it North Indian or South Indian, have always revered Shiva and Vishnu as complementary aspects of the same Supreme Reality, “Shivo Harih, Harih Shivah”. No one, not even the sitting chief minister of state, has the right to divide Hindu Gods in regionalities or race.
Such divisive remarks by CM Reddy were made to make a political point, dividing two widely worshipped forms of the Divine into markers of North versus South, rich versus poor, and Aryan versus Dravidian. This political strategy of fragmentation is central to Congress’s existence.
Does the BJP not respect the Har Har Mahadev slogan as much as Jai Shree Ram?
While this is a laughable claim coming not from a random Islamo-leftist online troll but from a sitting Chief Minister, the BJP has in rhetoric and action, demonstrated respect for Lord Shiva.
In fact, Prime Minister Narendra Modi represents Varanasi in the Lok Sabha. Varanasi’s spiritual heart is Kashi Vishwanath. From Kashi Vishwanath in Varanasi to Somnath in Gujarat and various public meetings, Prime Minister Modi has expressed his deep devotion to Lord Shiva. On many occasions, he opened addresses with “Om Namah Parvati Pataye, Har Har Mahadev”.
Unlike Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who suppresses Hindu religiosity in his social media posts extending greetings on Hindu festivals, PM Modi and key BJP leaders do not indulge in such practices to appear ‘secular’.
CM Reddy’s claim that PM Modi or BJP leaders “never” say Har Har Mahadev on stage is factually incorrect.
Since the BJP leaders and the RSS were actively involved in the Ram Janmabhoomi Movement, Jai Shree Ram does hold immense significance for them as not only a marker of devotion to Bhagwan but also symbolises the triumphant struggle for Ram Mandir.
This, however, does not mean that Lord Shiva became politically unmentionable for the BJP or Lord Ram the property of the BJP.
It is also interesting that the same Revanth Reddy who declared Lord Ram as ‘North Indian’ or, to a great extent foreign deity to South Indians, would never apply the same yardstick for Gods of Muslims and Christians.
BJP hits back
The BJP has taken sharp offense to Revanth Reddy’s divisive remarks. In an X post published on 29th September, BJP leader and Minister of State for Home Affairs, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, called the Congress party for drawing political boundaries between Lord Ram and Lord Shiva.
“CM Revanth Reddy who says ‘Muslim is Congress, Congress is Muslim’ is now drawing political boundaries between Lord Ram & Lord Shiva. Being the CM of Telangana that has “Dakshina Kashi” at Vemulawada and “Dakshina Ayodhya” at Bhadrachalam, Revanth Reddy should know better than to divide Lord Rama and Lord Shiva into North and South. Lord Shiva drank Halahala & became Neelakanth. Today, Congress is brewing its own Halahala: caste against caste, North against South, and now Shiva against Rama. Hon’ble PM Shri @narendramodi ji represents Varanasi. Who is at the spiritual heart of Varanasi? Kashi Vishwanath, Lord Shiva. Modi ji is first PM since independence to visit Vemulawada Shri Rajarajeshwara Swamy, Lord Shiva. You hail from Mahabubnagar which has Manyamkonda Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple. It is described as a Harihara Kshetra, representing the very unity of Hari & Hara whom you are now trying to separate for politics,” he wrote.
CM Revanth Reddy who says ‘Muslim is Congress, Congress is Muslim’ is now drawing political boundaries between Lord Ram & Lord Shiva.
— Bandi Sanjay Kumar (@bandisanjay_bjp) September 28, 2026
Being the CM of Telangana that has “Dakshina Kashi” at Vemulawada and “Dakshina Ayodhya” at Bhadrachalam, Revanth Reddy should know better than… pic.twitter.com/CdxMEb2aq3
“During elections, you took vows in the names of Gods to seek people’s vote. Now you are using the same Gods to divide the same people. Yesterday, Gods were witnesses to your promises. Today, you want to give Gods a caste, a class and a geography. Our own Hindu tradition answers your shameless politics beautifully: शिवाय विष्णुरूपाय शिवरूपाय विष्णवे। शिवस्य हृदयं विष्णुर्विष्णोश्च हृदयं शिवः॥ Vishnu is in the heart of Shiva, and Shiva is in the heart of Vishnu. That is Sanatana Dharma. And when you ask whether BJP leaders ever say “Har Har Mahadev”, here is Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji himself saying it. And that is precisely why Hindus must recognise the politics of division of Congress. Har Har Mahadev. Jai Shri Ram,” Kumar added.
