New Delhi: Ahead of Ram Temple ‘Pran Pratistha ceremony in Ayodhya, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) functionaries are busy creating a spectacle out of what it calls the ‘fulfillment of a diving dream’ while Congress, maintaining a safe distance from the January 22 event, has described it as a ‘BJP-RSS function’.
The Ram Temple consecration event, though a strictly religious event, has indeed turned political owing to groundswell of support for the upcoming mega event in Ayodhya.
BJP has made no bones about ‘milking’ the opportunity, knowing that the ‘Ram-maya’ atmosphere will yield dividends for the party in 2024 Lok Sabha elections while rival parties including Congress are caught up in ‘catch 22 situation’ over either boycotting or skipping the event.
Rahul Gandhi dubbed Ayodhya ceremony as ‘Narendra Modi event’ and accused the BJP of politicizing the event for electoral gains while other parties like Shiv Sena, Trinamool Congress & others have made their decisions public of giving the event a miss.
Congress has been unequivocal in its opposition to Ram Mandir invite while Sharad Pawar to Akhilesh Yadav have been more subdued in turning down the invitations. However, all fear alienating the voters with this move and hence have planned several ‘parallel’ religious events to woo the majority vote bank and also to take the attention away from historic Ayodhya event.
Here is what Opposition parties will do:
Mamata’s Kalighat visit
Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, angrily replied to reporters when questioned about Ram Mandir, ‘religion is a personal matter’. She has however planned to visit Kolkata’s Kalighat temple on January 22 and hold a ‘communal harmony rally’.
The rally will have members from all communities, marching from the convergence point to city’s Park Circus Maidan.
Rahul Gandhi’s temple visit
Rahul Gandhi, currently spearheading the Bharat Nyay Yatra has plans of visiting a temple in Assam. On January 22, he will be in the state, paying obeisance of Lord at a local temple.
Uddhav Thackeray’s ‘maha aarti’
Former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has said that he & his partymen will hold a ‘maha aarti’ at Nashik’s Kala ram temple rather than heading to Ayodhya for consecration ceremony. The temple is known for an Lord Ram idol, carved out of black stone.
It is believed that Lord Ram along with Sita & Laxman lived in exile in Panchvati, situated in Nashik.
Sharad Pawar/Akhilesh to skip event but will visit later
NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav though turned down the invite but sought to do it ‘silently’, as they fear losing out on majority votes in wake of direct snub to Ram Mandir invite. Both expressed thankfulness for invite and said that they will invite the temple later with families.
Lalu Yadav NO to event but…
Lalu Prasad Yadav, RJD supremo when asked about visiting Ram Temple, said ‘he won’t attend the Pran Pratistha ceremony’ but refrained from making any harsh comments on BJP’s elaborate plan for the gala event in Ayodhya.
Patna, Bihar | RJD chief Lalu Yadav says “Seat sharing does not happen so quickly in an alliance…. I will not go to Ayodhya to attend the pran pratishtha ceremony of the Ram Temple” pic.twitter.com/lvzN7hogQM
— ANI (@ANI) January 17, 2024
