While many Congress leaders on Thursday defended the decision of Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury to decline the invitation to attend the Ram temple inauguration event in Ayodhya, a few other party members differed with the leadership’s decision.
Defending the party decision, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said the inauguration of the temple should have been done on Ram Navami after completion of the construction. “No pran pratishtha takes place until temple is complete… When this could have been easily done on Ram Navami in April, why is it being done on January 22? BJP, RSS and VHP are making this a political issue,” Singh said here while maintaining that Congress always respected all faiths. He pointed out that some ‘Sankaracharyas’ too have decided to skip the temple inauguration.
However, Himachal Pradesh minister and Congress leader Vikramaditya Singh reiterated his decision to attend the Ayodhya event, saying his father and former CM late Vir Bhadra Singh was a devotee of Lord Ram. “I remain committed to my earlier statement. I intend to visit Ayodhya, not as a politician but as the son of late Virbhadra Singh, a devout follower of Lord Ram… How can I refuse this putra-dharma (son’s duty)? I have conveyed my views to senior party leaders… I oppose the RSS-VHP, BJP’s ideology of ‘Hindu Rashtra’, and their polarisation policies. I am a dedicated Congress worker, loyal to its ideology,” Singh said.
Senior Gujarat Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia disagreed with the party leadership’s decision to skip the Ayodhya event. “@INCIndia should have stayed away from taking such a political decision” he said in a social media post.
Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah said Congress was opposing RSS-BJP politics. “We are not against Lord Ram. We all follow Lord Ram and visit Ram temples in our villages… But they (BJP) are doing politics over it and we are opposing that politics,” he said.
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