’RSS, BJP event’: Congress leadership ’respectfully declines’ Ram Mandir invite

mangaloretoday.com

New Delhi, Jan 10, 2024: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leaders including former president Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury will not attend the Ram Temple consecration event to be held in Ayodhya on January 22, a party communique said on Wednesday.

 

Shared on its official X (formerly known as Twitter) handle, the letter termed the mega consecration ceremony as "RSS/BJP event".

Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had received an invite to attend the ceremony in Ayodhya on January 22.

However, the grand old party alleged that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have long made a political project of the temple in Ayodhya.

"Lord Ram is worshipped by millions in our country. Religion is a personal matter. But the RSS/BJP have long made a political project of the temple in Ayodhya. The inauguration of the incomplete temple by the leaders of the BJP and the RSS has been obviously brought forward for electoral gain," the statement said.

"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 is clearly an RSS/BJP event," it added.

Reacting to Congress’s decision to not attend the mega-inauguration ceremony, Vishva Hindu Parisad (VHP) said that if the grand old party does not want to attend Ram Lalla’s event, it’s their choice. "We have sent the invitation, it is okay if they don’t want to come," the right-wing outfit said, according to sources.

Courtesy: India Today