Last week, the Congress party announced that its top leaders had declined an invitation to attend the inauguration of Ram temple in Ayodhya as it was a political project of the BJP and the RSS.
A statement put out by Jairam Ramesh, General Secretary (Communications), Indian National Congress announced Congress Chief Mallikarjun Kharge, former president Sonia Gandhi and its Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury received the invitation to attend the inauguration of Ram Mandir last month itself.
“Lord Ram is worshipped by millions in our country. Religion is a personal matter. But the RSS/BJP have long made It a political project of the temple in Ayodhya. The inauguration of the incomplete temple by leaders of the BJP and the RSS has been obviously brought forward for electoral gain. While abiding by the Supreme Court judgement and honouring the sentiments of millions who revere Lord Ram, Shri Mallikarjun Kharge, Smt. Sonia Gandhi and Shri. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury have declined the invitation to what is clearly an RSS/BJP event,” read the statement.
The Congress decision to not attend the temple inauguration in Ayodhya calling it an RSS/BJP has once again exposed the lack of clarity in the party on what is their political stand on the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Even Jairam Ramesh’s statement claims that the party abides by the 2019 Supreme Court judgement that was in favour of constructing a Ram temple and that it honours the sentiments of millions of Ram devotees across the country. If the temple’s construction began only after the SC gave a go ahead, how can it be construed as a BJP-RSS event? Even if the BJP and RSS had claimed so, would this not have been a great opportunity for Congress to negate it by participating in the event as one of the largest political parties in the country?
The question here is if a large mosque or Church of national significance was being inaugurated by any outfit, would the Congress have been so hesitant in participating? Even at the ward level, any politician worth his salt would attend all religious events in his ward simply to show that he was representing all his constituents, which is the right thing to do. If that is the maturity of a ward-level politician, how can one of the largest parties avoid a ceremony that is expected to be attended by 50 lakh people?
Besides, senior Congress leaders have already detailed the party’s role in the Ram temple movement since its early days. Former Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath had claimed last year that BJP alone could not claim credit for Ram temple in Ayodhya and the role of Rajiv Gandhi cannot be ignored. “Rajiv Gandhi got the locks (of the temporary Ram temple at the disputed Babri Masjid site) opened. Let us not forget history,” he told in an interview. At the time, Congress party was in power at the centre as well as in Uttar Pradesh.
In 1992, when the Babri Masjid was demolished, former PM Narasimha Rao had been widely criticized for failing to take sufficient measures to ensure that the demolition of the mosque did not take place. Several reports have even surfaced accusing PM Rao of even being sympathetic to the cause.
On Sunday (Jan 14), the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF), the trust overseeing the construction of the mosque in Ayodhya, announced through a newspaper report that it aims to build one of the biggest mosques in India. Haji Arfat Shaikh, a BJP leader from Maharashtra and chief of the mosque’s development committee appointed in November 2023 claimed that the mosque will be ‘better than the Taj Mahal’ along with ‘the world’s biggest Koran that will measure about 21 feet’. He also added that it will be the first mosque in India to have five minars.
If the Congress considers the Ram temple to be a BJP-RSS project, is the mosque construction a Muslim League project? Having declined to attend the inauguration of Ram temple, can the Congress now afford to attend the mosque inauguration whenever it is ready? Won’t that be a political suicide? By skipping all major religious events in historically important locations, which segment of the voter base does the Congress plan to achieve anyway?
Despite having a long association with one of the most contentious issues in the country, the Congress decision to stay away from the Ram temple inauguration can only cause further dent to the party’s image as an indecisive outfit, and is likely to continue to haunt its leadership in the years to come.