Congress Leaders Not To Attend Ram Temple Inauguration
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2024-01-11 06:54:07
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The Congress party has officially decided to boycott the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya on January 22. The Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust had invited Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Manmohan Singh and Adhir Ranjan Choundhary to the event. But the Congress has 'respectfully' declined the invite. It said that since the RSS-BJP combine has given the event political hues and since an incomplete temple is being inaugurated, it thinks fit its leaders should not attend the ceremony.
But it was no secret that the pran prathistha (consecration) ceremony was planned as soon as the first phase of construction was complete. It is also known to all that the construction of a grand Ram temple at Ayodhya was a promise given in the BJP manifesto both in 2014 and 2019 and even before that. Hence, with the first phase completed, the pran pratistha ceremony is being held as planned. So the Congress plea that an incomplete temple is being inaugurated does not hold water. Also, since it was a promise made in the manifesto, it is obvious that the BJP will want to make political capital out of the event, although the list of invitees is inclusive and not limited to BJP-RSS supporters or Hindutva sympathisers.
The Congress was actually in two minds. Initially, it tried to make light of BJPs involvement in constructing the temple by saying that it was being done at Supreme Court's behest. It had, in the past, also harped on the fact that the silanyas (foundation stone laying ceremony) of the temple was carried out when Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister. But now that the Ram Mandir is a reality and with general elections to be held within five months, the party does not want to be identified with the temple lest it antagonizes the minority voters. But it forgets that in doing so, it is giving the BJP a handle to term it anti-Hindu. That might hurt it more in electoral terms.
