India: BJP slams Congress for turning down Ram temple consecration ceremony invitation

India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday (Jan 11) slammed Congress over declining the invitation extended to its leaders for the Ram temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya, stating that this move had demonstrated the grand old party's inherent opposition to the country's culture and Hindu religion.

Union minister Pralhad Joshi while talking to the reporters said that the party turned down the invitation for the "sake of appeasement."

"For the sake of appeasement, the Congress party is continuously opposing Hindu beliefs. Whenever the issue of Ram Temple has been raised in the last two to four decades, they have always opposed it. They even said Lord Ram was a fictional figure and questioned the Ram Setu... The present Congress party has reached the heights of appeasement. I am not surprised by their decision..." Joshi told news agency ANI.

Meanwhile, BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi highlighted a pattern of boycotts by the Congress who had earlier skipped the inauguration ceremony of the new Parliament building, the G20 Summit, and also the President's address.

Watch |Ram Temple Ayodhya consecration: Congress calls temple inauguration an event for 'electoral gains'

"Congress boycotted the inauguration ceremony of the new Parliament building, the G20 Summit, Kargil Vijay Diwas from 2004 to 2009, and even the Bharat Ratna ceremony of former President Pranab Mukherjee, who belonged to their party," Trivedi said.

Questioning the Congress party's opposition to the Ram Temple the BJP spokesperson further said, "Babri's supporters are also coming to the Pran Pratisthan of Ram Lalla, but why is Congress opposing it?"

"In your fight against PM Modi, you went to an extent of standing against India, but now fighting against PM Modi, you're even fighting against God," he added.

'This is Nehru's Congress, not Gandhi's Congress'

Trivedi, launching a scathing attack against the grand old party, invoked India's first prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru claiming, "This is Nehru's Congress, this is not Gandhi's Congress. Mahatma Gandhi used to sing 'Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram' and today Congress is not attending the "pran pratishtha" ceremony. This shows Congress is against Hindu religion and Hindutva."

Karnataka BJP leader CT Ravi also cited an incident where Nehru had refused to visit Somnath Temple in Gujarat claiming that the party through the ages opposed "Hindutva".

"Congress has always been against Hindutva. Somnath Temple was reconstructed by Sardar Vallabbhai Patel, Babu Rajendra Prasad, and KM Munshi. Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister during that time. He didn't visit Somanth. So how can the present leadership of Congress go to Ayodhya?," he said.

"First, they were crying that they did not receive an invitation, and when they did, they refused to accept," Ravi added.

BJP MP Harnath Singh Yadav further alleged that the Congress was against the Ram temple from the very beginning.

"Congress opposed Ram Janmabhoomi right from the beginning. It left no stone unturned in overcoming all the obstacles that it could. They had an opportunity to atone for all their sins and crimes but they lost that opportunity. Citizens of this country are standing with Lord Ram. People whose spirits live somewhere else are against Lord Ram," the BJP MP said.

"It is not just Congress alone. Akhilesh Yadav refused to even accept the invitation letter. He too had the opportunity to atone for what his father did but he too lost the opportunity."

"Anti-Ram and anti-Krishna forces are gaining strength in the country. All these are anti-Hindutva forces," Yadav added.

Congress party had earlier in a statement said that Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury would not attend the Ram temple consecration ceremony, scheduled for Jan 22, calling it a "BJP/RSS event".

"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 party said.

(With inputs from agencies)