All around Bharat, there is a wave of religious fervor as the date for Ayodhya’s Ram Temple’s Consecration ceremony is nearing. Hundreds of dignitaries from around the country are set to be present at the event, however, the senior leaders of Congress have declined the invitation, terming it as a “political project” and a “BJP-RSS” event.
On Wednesday, Congress announced that Chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, and the party’s Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury have “respectfully declined” the invitation. The senior leader of the grand old party stated “Religion is a personal matter”, defending Congress’s decision to not be present at the ceremony.
However, the fact remains that though the party terms religion a “personal matter”, the party itself has “personally” been involved in religious ceremonies or events, except ones regarding Hinduism or the Sanatan Dharma. In fact, the entire nation is well aware of Congress’s long history of appeasement politics, while continuously displaying anti-Hindu policies. All of this began when Jawaharlal Nehru became the Prime Minister of an independent Bharat. And it continues till today, sheer examples of which are Nehru’s disapproval of building the Somnath temple to Congress’s declination of the invitation to Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
Well, BJP MP Sudanshu Trivedi had rightly put it on Thursday by saying, “This is Nehru’s Congress, not Gandhi’s Congress”. He explained that Mahatma Gandhi used to sing ‘Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram’, however, Nehru’s Congress declined the invitation to the Pran Pratistha ceremony.
Congress’s Outright Opposition to Hinduism
For long, Congress has denied the existence of Lord Ram and has never believed in its ideals as well. The drawings of Lord Ram or Lord Hanuman were termed as “communal” or “unacceptable” by the grand old party. Furthermore, it was the Congress party, which once wanted to bring in the Communal Violence Bill, according to which the minorities would always be regarded as the “victims”, while the Hindus would be considered as “perpetrators”. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi even dared to declare Hinduism a “saffron terror” and went on to characterize it as being more dangerous than the Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Jawaharlal Nehru, on whose footsteps the entire Congress had been walking, was heart-wrenched when the Somnath temple was being rebuilt. The story goes back to 1665 CE when the Somnath temple was converted into a mosque under the instruction of Aurangzeb. However, on the auspicious occasion of Diwali, when Sardar Patel visited the temple, he urged it to be restored to its former glory. Afterward, under then-minister, KM Munshi, the reconstruction of the temple took place. As expected, Nehru, who vehemently opposed the temple construction, dubbed it a sign of “Hindu Revivalism”. When the restoration was complete, Munshi invited President Rajendra Prasad to the temple’s inauguration, but Nehru opposed it and wrote him a letter explaining why it was a bad idea for President Prasad to attend the inauguration ceremony. Despite that, Prasad went, stating that had it been an inauguration of a mosque or a church, he still would have gone.
Significantly, Kapil Sibal, who was earlier a member of Congress, was at the forefront in the Supreme Court against the reconstruction of the Ram Mandir and appeared for the Sunni Waqf Board and Babri Masjid Action Committee to term the case as a ‘trap’ laid by the BJP. In 2018, Congress leader P Chidambaram mocked the idea of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, stating that the BJP only focused on building temples and giant statues.
Moreover, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President K Sudhakaran distorted Ramayana and in an interview stated that when Lord Ram, Lord Lakshmana, and Goddess Sita were returning from Lanka, Lakshman had thought of pushing his brother, Lord Ram, into the sea and going away with his wife Sita.
Shockingly, Congress even had the audacity to call Hinduism a “saffron terror” and compared it with the terror organization Lashkar-e-Taiba. This was confirmed by Former US ambassador to Bharat, Timothy Roemer during an interview.
Congress’s Appeasement Politics
Congress, which states that “religion is a personal matter” and the Ram temple consecration ceremony is a ‘political game”, wanted to play the so-called game itself. Sonia Gandhi felt that the consecration of Lord Ram’s sculpture was a religious event, whereas she was eager to attend the canonization of Mother Teresa. Sonia Gandhi who was unable to attend the event personally was so heartbroken with her illness that she wrote a letter to Pope Francis in 2016 expressing her sorrow and regret. She added that despite her unavailability, she had nominated two senior party leaders to attend the Vatican ceremony on her behalf.
This was but just the tip of the huge iceberg. For the sake of vote bank politics, making its path of appeasement more concrete, Congress leaders have numerous times organized Iftaar parties. During one similar event in 2018, Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former President Pratibha Patil, and former Vice President Hamid Ansari were among the dignitaries who attended the function.
In order to make the Muslim community happy, Rajiv Gandhi’s government passed legislation called the 1986 Muslim Women (Protection on Rights of Divorce) Act. The nail-biting case of 62-year-old Shah Bano, whose husband Mohammed Ahmad Khan, divorced her by uttering triple talaq. Though the Supreme Court verdict came in the favour of the woman, Rajiv Gandhi, the then prime minister overturned the ruling through the 1986 Muslim Women (Protection on Rights of Divorce) Act, which allowed providing maintenance to a divorced woman only for 90 days after divorce. It took 33 years to correct Gandhi’s blunder. In 2019, under the Modi government, the parliament passed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019 criminalising triple talaq and delivering justice to hundreds of women like Shah Bano. Once again Congress showed their weak appeasing mentality where for them a woman’s rights did not matter, but the appeasement of a certain religious sect that is happy to cater to their radicalized notion and oppress the women of their community.
Declining the invitation to Ram Temple’s consecration ceremony was a cliched move by Congress, once again reflecting their blatant opposition to Hinduism. Yet, terming it as a “political project” is an irony because the Congress government has done it multiple times to appease its vote bank. When election season comes closer Congress leader Rahul Gandhi turns to wearing Hinduism on his sleeves and pursues the policy of soft Hindutva, the evidence of which is his several visits to temples during polls. Perhaps the not-so-grand but old party, which termed the historical consecration as a BJP RSS event, is scared that if its leaders did attend the Ram Mandir consecration, it might not go down well within certain communities that see Bharat as divided, broken parts. Who refuse to see the nation as their mother, who refuse the culture, the faith that Binds it. For Congress coming to the consecration ceremony would be acceptance of their long-drawn defeated battle to dissect Bharat in million pieces.
Comments