New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has deployed Union ministers and state chief ministers to accuse the Congress of “appeasement” and being “anti-Ram” and invoked the party of being “Nehru’s Congress and not Gandhi’s” after the grand old party announced its decision to decline the invitation to the inauguration ceremony being planned for the Ayodhya Ram Temple.
In a press conference on Thursday, January 11, BJP MP and national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi invoked former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and said that the Congress’s decision to not attend the ceremony shows that the party is not “Gandhi’s Congress”.
“This is Nehru’s Congress, this is not Gandhi’s Congress. Mahatma Gandhi’s political view was Ram Rajya, he used to sing ‘Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram’, his samadhi (cremation spot) ‘Hey Ram’ is written. Today that Ram Rajya is being started with the Pran Pratishtha and Congress is not attending. This makes it very clear the difference between Nehru’s Congress and Gandhi’s Congress,” said Trivedi.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Congress had said that its leaders – party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, his predecessor Sonia Gandhi and the party’s Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury – who received the invitation, declined the invitation calling it an “RSS/BJP event.”
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“Religion is a personal matter. But the RSS/BJP have long made a political project of the temple in Ayodhya. The inauguration of the incomplete temple by the leaders of the BJP and the RSS has been obviously brought forward for electoral gain,” the statement from Congress’ general secretary media in-charge Jairam Ramesh had read.
Union minister for parliamentary affairs Pralhad Joshi accused the party of “appeasement” and “opposing Hindu beliefs”.
“For the sake of appeasement, the Congress party is continuously opposing Hindu beliefs,” he said on Thursday.
“And now in more than 30-40 years whenever the issue of Ram Temple has been raised they have either ridiculed or opposed it. They filed an appeal in the Supreme Court, in which they questioned the existence of Lord Ram and questioned the Ram Setu. The Congress party has reached the heights of appeasement,” he said.
Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani on Wednesday night said that the party’s “anti-Ram” face has become apparent.
“Congress party’s anti-Lord Ram face is before the nation. It is no surprise that under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, the party that had filed an affidavit before the court that Lord Ram does not have an identity. Under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and Congress, INDI Alliance has insulted Sanatan Dharma time and again. Now, the declining of the invitation to the ‘pran pratishtha’ ceremony shows their anti-Sanatan mindset,” said Irani on Wednesday night to reporters.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma while addressing a press conference on Thursday said that the Congress had lost the opportunity to pay for their sins by going to the Ram Temple. inauguration ceremony.
“In my view, they should not have been invited at all. But VHP gave them a golden opportunity to repair or atone some of their sins. But they missed the bus. I feel pity and sad for them,” he said.
Meanwhile the top spiritual leaders in Sanatan Hindu Dharma, Jagatguru Shankaracharyas, won’t be part of the ceremony to inaugurate the Shri Ram Temple in Ayodhya, The Struggle for Hindu Existence– a prominent pro-Hindutva portal reported.
The report quoted Shankaracharyas as critical of politicisation, not getting due respect, and ceremony being done before time.
Those who declined the invitation include Shankaracharya Swami Shri Nischalananda Saraswati of Purvaamnaya Govardhanmath Puri peeth, Shankaracharya Swami Shri Bharati Teerth Ji of Sringeri Sharda Peeth, Shankaracharya Shri Swami Sadanand Saraswati of Paschimannaya Dwarka Shardapeeth, Shankaracharya Swami Shri Avimukteshwarananda Saraswati of Uttaramnaya Jyotirmath.