NEW DELHI: The Congress on Wednesday announced that it will not attend the Ram Mandir inauguration in Ayodhya on January 22. The grand old party 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 alleged 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 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.