Markandey Katju @MKatju claims that Rama is never referred to as a God in Valmiki Ramayana and only becomes a God by the time of Tulsidas. This is an even more false statement than that of Arshia Sattar, who claimed that Rama is only a God in Uttarakanda and Balakanda.

Mandodari explicitly refers to Rama as Vishnu and Sita as a वसुधाया वसुधा (Bhudevi even for Bhudevi) and a श्रियाः श्रीः (Lakshmi even for Lakshmi)

Brahma goes into even more detail:

Both these references are from the Yuddha Kanda. By making such statements, all these people prove is that they've never bothered to read the text.