Ayodhya Ram Temple Consecration Ceremony: Congress Dilemma
Asia News Agency
Leaders of several political parties have been invited to the January 22, 2024 inauguration of the Ram temple being built on the land of the demolished Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. Those invited include Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge from the Congress and Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Yechury has declined the invitation, saying religion is a personal choice and should not to be converted into an instrument for political gain. But senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, who is regarded by many as uncompromisingly anti-communal in his politics, confirmed that Gandhi is considering this invitation ‘positively'. It was also said that either Gandhi herself would go or a delegation of the party would attend the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony.
Congress’ earlier blunders
If what Singh is saying has been reported correctly, Apoorvanand (columnist at The Indian Express and The Wire) writes “then the Congress party is going to make another suicidal blunder.
“The first was to open the locks of the Babri Masjid in 1986 under the supervision of its state government in Uttar Pradesh. There is a gap of only six years between that decision and the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Actually, it should be said that this was the party’s second blunder. The first, in fact, was made by its state government in 1949 when it ignored the crime committed by ‘unknown persons’ of surreptitiously placing some idols in the Babri Masjid. Rather than taking remedial steps, the government decided to lock the Babri Masjid and ban the entry of Muslims into it.
“It took 37 years to from the locking of 1949 to the unlocking of 1986 but only six years to go from 1986 to the demolition of 1992…..”
Basically, writes Apoorvanand “the temple, which is going to be inaugurated on January 22, is of a Ram whose guardian or patron is the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). If Hindus recognise this temple, it would mean that the BJP or the RSS are going to determine their religion and their religious conduct in the days and years ahead.”
No clarity over invite: The Congress, nevertheless, needs to deal with the present dilemma over attending the consecration ceremony. From all information, the Congress finds itself stranded in a political minefield and struggling to craft a position which will not cause much electoral damage.
BJP claims the temple as its political victory
The point for consideration by the Congress and the Opposition, according to Political analyst Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr “is that Prime Minister Modi wants to give it the pride of place on his political agenda. He wants to make it a grand affair, showcase it as an issue of revival of national glory, and there is a thin, blurring dividing line between the political agenda and the party’s, and the Modi government’s, rhetoric of cultural nationalism…….There is no doubt that the undeclared intention of the BJP is to claim it as its political victory and flaunt it as an achievement in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.”
Significantly, “what is emerging in the construction of the temple and its inauguration in January is the power play of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and not so much of Hindu piety, which is the hallmark of the people in this country, where the story of Ram exists in its various literary retellings in many languages of India, and there is no Ram temple in brick and mortar to counter this cultural and religious legacy of the Hindus…..”
