"Although real Ayodhya lies at Thori, city in the west of Birgunj, India has claimed that Lord Rama was born there. Due to these continuous claims even we have believed that deity Sita got married to Prince Rama of India. However, in reality, Ayodhya is a village lying west of Birgunj," Oli claimed at an event organised at Prime Minister's residence in Kathmandu.
The Prime Minister also blamed India of cultural encroachment by "creating a fake Ayodhya."
"Balmiki Ashram is in Nepal and the holy place where King Dashrath had executed the rites to get the son is in Ridi. Dashrath's son Ram was not an Indian and Ayodhya is also in Nepal," he claimed.
In an attempt to save self from criticism, Oli questioned how Lord Rama could come to Janakpur to marry Sita when there were "no means" of communication. He further said that it to be impossible for Lord Rama to come to Janakpur from present Ayodhya that lies in India.
"Janakpur lies here and Ayodhya there and there is talk of marriage. There was neither telephone nor mobile then how could he know about Janakpur," Oli said.
Many scientific inventions and knowledge originated in Nepal, but unfortunately such a rich tradition could not continue later, Oli said.
His allegations have been criticised by senior NCP leaders, including former prime minister 'Prachanda', who demanded Prime Minister Oli's resignation, saying his recent anti-India remarks were "neither politically correct nor diplomatically appropriate."
Co-chairperson of Rastriya Prajatantra Party Kamal Thapa said that it is not suitable for such baseless, unproven statements to come from a Prime Minister. "It looks like the PM wants to further spoil Nepal-India relations rather than working to resolve tensions," Thapa tweeted.
India has responded fiercely to the claims on its territory, dismissing the "artificial enlargement" as unacceptable.
"Nepal is well aware of India's consistent position on this matter and we urge the Government of Nepal to refrain from such unjustified cartographic assertion and respect India's sovereignty and territorial integrity," the government said.
Nepal claimed the territory under a treaty made with the East India Company during the British period.Back in May Prime Minister Oli also blamed India for the spread of the novel coronavirus in his country.
The India-Nepal bilateral ties came under strain after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated a 80-km-long strategically crucial road connecting the Lipulekh pass with Dharchula in Uttarakhand on May 8. Nepal reacted sharply to the inauguration of the road claiming that it passed through Nepalese territory. India rejected the claim asserting that the road lies completely within its territory.
Recently, Nepal redrew the country's political map through a constitutional amendment, incorporating three strategically important Indian areas. The Nepal Parliament also approved the new political map of the country featuring Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura areas which India maintains belong to it. India has already termed as "untenable" the artificial enlargement" of the territorial claims by Nepal.
Last week, Nepal stopped the transmission of all Indian private news channels except Doordarshan, accusing them of airing reports hurting the country's national sentiment.
