Senior Congress leader Rashid Alvi on Friday said that not all those who chant “Jai Shri Ram” are saints, and cited a passage from the Ramayan as proof.

“We all want Ram Rajya in this country. But how can there be hatred in a country where the lion and the goat drink water together?” the former Union minister said, alluding to the notion that Ram Rajya is a state of equality, justice and fraternity.

He added: “All those who chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ are not munis (saints).”

Citing the Ramayan, Alvi said: “When Lakshmanji was unconscious and Hanumanji (on a mission to fetch medicinal herbs) descended from above (on the Himalayas), he heard someone reciting ‘Jai Shri Ram’. He (Hanuman) was a devotee. He came and sat near the feet (of the person chanting Ram’s name).”

Alvi added that this person was, however, a demon tasked to waste Hanuman’s time “and so asked him (Hanuman) to first go to Mansarovar and take a bath there – he said you cannot chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ without taking a bath”.

Alvi was referring to the story of Kalanemi.

The Ramayan describes how, as Lakshman lay mortally injured during the Lanka war, the physician Sushen asked Hanuman to bring the herb Sanjeevani from Mount Gandhamadan in the Himalayas by sunset if Ram’s brother was to be saved.

Kalanemi, assigned by Ravan to delay or kill Hanuman, sat on a mountain in the Himalayas disguised as a sadhu and chanted Ram’s name, drawing Hanuman’s attention. As Hanuman bathed in a nearby lake on his advice, a crocodile Kalanemi had placed there attacked him. Hanuman killed the crocodile, but it immediately changed into an apsara and warned him about the Kalanemi’s real intentions.