The consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya next month – to be headlined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi – has become, as expected, a political issue ahead of a Lok Sabha election due in less than four months. Invitations to the January 22 event have been sent to religious leaders and actors, but it is those sent to opposition leaders (and their RSVPs) that are making headlines.
On Tuesday morning CPI (M) leader Brinda Karat underlining her party’s decision to skip a programme that she described as the “politicisation of a religious programme”. “No, we will not go. We respect the religious beliefs… but they are connecting a religious programme with politics. “Using religion as a political weapon or to advance a political agenda is not right,” Ms Karat told news agency ANI.
The BJP – for which construction of the temple has been a major campaign issue, and will be again in campaigning for next year’s general and state elections – hit back at Ms Karat with Union Minister Meenakshi Lekhi, saying, “… invitations were sent to all (but) only those called by Lord Ram will come”.
The Left leaders aren’t the only opposition politician to have refused the Ram Temple invitation.
Ex-Congress leader Kapil Sibal said he had “Lord Ram in my heart” and, therefore, didn’t feel the need to attend the ceremony, which will likely be a show of strength by the BJP before the elections.
“What I say to you is from my heart… because I do not care about these things. If Ram is in my heart, and Ram has guided me on my journey, it means I have done something right,” Mr Sibal told ANI.
Mr Sibal attacked the BJP for being a “show-off” and said, “They talk about Lord Ram but their character is nowhere close. Truthfulness, tolerance, sacrifice, and respect for others are some of the traits of Ram but they do exactly the opposite… you need to have Ram’s principles in your heart.”
Another Left party, the CPI, is also likely to skip the Ram Temple event, sources have said.
The Left, Mr Sibal, and other opposition parties and leaders, have spoken out, but all eyes are on the Congress and its senior leaders, including party boss Mallikarjun Kharge and matriarch Sonia Gandhi.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the party’s leader in the outgoing Lok Sabha, and its former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, have also been extended invitations. It is not clear if Rahul Gandhi was invited too.
The BJP’s only real national rival must walk a tight rope between accepting the invite and, by doing so, potentially alienating minority votes, particularly from the Muslim community. Those votes are key in a state that has 80 Lok Sabha MPs, and in which the Muslims are about 20 per cent of the population.
The Congress has been guarded in its response so far; General Secretary KC Venugopal confirmed the invite and told reporters, “You will (be told) about the party’s stand… you will know on January 22.”
“They (the BJP) invited us. We are very thankful for inviting us… let us (see).”
Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, who took a dig at the BJP for not inviting him, asked “what objection can there be” and said, “Either she (Mrs Gandhi) will go or a delegation will go…”
However, uncertainty, and political gamesmanship, over the Ayodhya Ram Temple invitations hasn’t been limited to opposition leaders, with the BJP first seemingly snubbing two veterans – LK Advani and Murali Manohar Joshi, both of whom led the Ram Janmabhoomi movement from the front.
Shortly after, though, the right-wing group Vishwa Hindu Parishad said invitations had, in fact, been sent to Mr Advani, a former Deputy Prime Minister, and Mr Joshi, a former Union Minister.
Alok Kumar, international working president of the VHP, said Mr Advani and Mr Joshi, leaders of the Ram Mandir movement, had been invited for the January 22 event. “We spoke about Ramji’s movement. Both the seniors said they would try their best to come for the event,” Mr Kumar said, according to a post on VHP’s handle on X.
