Kohima: The Ayodhya Ram Temple consecration ceremony has been “captured by the Prime Minister and the RSS”, who have turned it into an “election function”, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said Tuesday, in his first comments on the issue, which has emerged as the centrepiece of the BJP’s 2024 Lok Sabha campaign.
Addressing a press conference on the third day of the Congress’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which is currently in Nagaland, Gandhi said he did not have any interest in using religion for political “gain” as faith for him was a personal issue, not to be worn on his sleeve.
“The RSS and the BJP have made the 22 January function a completely political Narendra Modi function. It is becoming a BJP-RSS function. I think that is why the Congress president said he would not go to it,” Gandhi said, responding to a question on the Congress declining the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Trust’s invitation to Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
Gandhi said the Prime Minister and the RSS, “our principal opponents, have captured the function and turned it into an election function. The RSS and the BJP have given the 22 January function an election flavour, a political flavour”.
The Congress’s decision, announced last week, invited sharp reactions from the BJP, which labelled it as another evidence of the Opposition party and the Gandhi family being “anti-Hindu”.
On Tuesday, Gandhi said while he followed the principles of Hindu religion in his personal life, he did not believe in attempts to make use of matters of faith for personal or political gains. The Congress, he said, was open to all religions and practices.
“Those who actually believe in religion share a personal relationship with religion. Those who have a public relationship with religion try to gain out of it. I don’t have any interest in gaining. I try to live my life by following the principles of my faith. I behave with people properly, I respect people, I listen to them, I do not spread hate, I do not respond with arrogance. That is Hindu religion for me. But I don’t need to wear it on my sleeve,” Gandhi added.
While the party has decided to skip the consecration ceremony, leaders of the Congress or any other constituent of INDIA, were “more than welcome” to visit the temple, Gandhi said.
He also referred to the fact that four Hindu shankaracharyas or pontiffs, – the “biggest authorities” of the Hindu religion, according to him – were not attending the ceremony. The shankaracharyas have said that pran pratishtha in an incomplete temple is “anti shastra”.
Asked where he would be on 22 January, Gandhi said he was likely to be in Assam as the yatra has a fixed route.
There is speculation that Gandhi will visit a Shiv temple in Assam on 22 January. Responding to a question on this at the press conference, he said, “Frankly, I don’t know. I can check and tell you. I will be somewhere along the route of the yatra.”
The Congress MP also fielded a number of questions on the status of the INDIA bloc’s seat-sharing talks for the Lok Sabha polls.
He said the seat-sharing talks were “complicated” in some places but would be resolved. “The status of the INDIA alliance is very good. We are in conversation with our partners. The issue of seat-sharing has been taken up. A lot of it is simple, not complex,” he said.
During the last meeting of INDIA leaders, held virtually, there was a consensus on making Mallikarjun Kharge the bloc’s chairman.
There was also a proposal to make Bihar Chief Minister and JDU chief Nitish Kumar the coalition’s convenor, which he turned down, saying he was not a unanimous choice of all constituents.
Gandhi sought to downplay the issue, saying the media “overplays such things”.
“There is humour, and brotherhood in the meetings. There is mutual respect and affection between the leaders of the INDIA alliance. It’s an ideological grouping. The small issues will be resolved and we will fight and win the polls,” he said.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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