Congress Following Its Legacy; Party Divided Over Attending Ram Temple Inauguration

Chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party Sonia Gandhi, the party's president Mallikarjun Kharge and the party's leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury have declined the invitation to attend the Pran Pratistha, a consecration ceremony of Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22.

The Congress party called the Ram Temple inauguration a BJP-RSS event. As per the party, the inauguration of an incomplete temple shows the haste in the BJP party that is doing this for electoral gains.

Many Congress leaders, mainly from the northern and western states are in favor of senior leaders' decision. They are accusing the BJP of politicising the religious event.

Meanwhile, party leaders from southern states such as KC Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Ramesh Chennithala and others think that Congress' presence at the Ram Temple inauguration will give a boost to the Narendra Modi-led BJP, which is using the event for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

In addition to the Congress party, the Left parties and other INDIA bloc allies have also declined the invite. But most of the opposition parties are in a dilemma whether to attend the event or be labelled as anti-Sanatan.

Divided Opinions

The Ram Temple issue has always created confusion within the Congress party. Another senior party leader, Arjun Modhwadia said that Lord Ram was a matter of faith and so the party should avoid taking any political instance on it.

Some of the party leaders from Uttar Pradesh will visit Ayodhya on Makar Sankranti to take a dip in the Saru River and then they will head towards Ram Temple.

Tracing back in time, in 1992, PV Narasimha Rao was silently watching at Doordarshan the demolition of the sixteenth-century Babri Masjid by 'karsevaks.

A few days before the demolition, Arjun Singh and Narasimha Rao's cabinet colleague and critic met the then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Kalyan Singh in Lucknow and declared that all would be fine. But later Arjun Singh accused Rao of allowing the demolition.

After a few years, Rao in his book, 'Ayodhya, December 6' accused his colleagues of playing a shameful game over Babri Masjid. He mentioned in his book that although the Kalyan Singh government and the BJP were solely responsible for the demolition, but some of his party colleagues were guided by "political and vote-earning consideration".

In 1989, Rajiv Gandhi launched his Lok Sabha campaign on the banks of River Sarju in Ayodhya, promising 'Ram Rajya'. He also performed a 'shilanyas', and laid a foundation stone at the disputed site. But the loss of Muslim votes forced him to stop talking about 'Ram Rajya'.

On the other hand, as the chairperson of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, Sonia Gandhi overruled P Chidambaram and other members of the foundation and issued a statement, "had Rajiv been alive he would not have allowed Babri demolition".

Following the footsteps of mother, Rahul Gandhi said the same in Uttar Pradesh in April 2007.

Interestingly, a month before his assassination in May 1991, Rajiv Gandhi told Sonia Gandhi that he would stand in front of any attempt to demolish Babri Masjid.

Remarks ranging from a 'Ram Rajya' promise to protecting 'Babri Masjid' have not been helping the party to fetch votes since 1992.

In fact, Congress party members try to avoid discussion about the Ram Temple dispute and the party too has not convened any special AICC session since the occurrence of the event.