Congress announces to not attend ‘BJP-RSS event’ at Ayodhya on Jan 22
New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday announced that it will not attend the Ram Tample inauguration at Ayodhya, UP, on January 22.
The Congress called the grand temple inauguration a BJP-RSS event. “Religion is a personal matter but the RSS and the BJP have made Ayodhya temple a political project,” the party said in a statement.
The Congress said that the inauguration of incomplete temple in Ayodhya by leaders of the BJP, RSS was obviously brought forward for electoral gains. “While abiding by the 2019 Supreme Court judgment and honouring the sentiments of millions who revere Lord Ram, Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury have respectfully declined the invitation to what it clearly an RSS/BJP event,” reads the statement released by the Congress.
Several Congress leaders have accused the BJP of politicising the religious event in a bid to take credit for the inauguration of the Ram Temple. With the BJP going all out to make the Ram Mandir inauguration a memorable event, most of the opposition parties have been caught in a Catch-22 situation over participating in the ceremony. With the Lok Sabha elections months away, if they don’t attend they fear being labelled anti-Sanatan and if they do attend they fear playing into the BJP’s hands.
The CPI-M has already announced that it will not attend the ceremony, accusing the BJP of politicising a religious event. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee accused the BJP of using Mandir inauguration as a gimmick ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
It is, however, regretful that the Hindutva forces have made the Indian society so polarized that even secular parties like Congress could not dare to reject the invitation to the Ram Temple ceremony on the ground that the event will hurt religious sentiments of millions of Muslims across India.
