As top Congress functionaries from various states gathered at the party headquarters in New Delhi last Thursday, a senior leader from Uttar Pradesh sought to know the party’s stand on the Ayodhya pran pratisthan, Ram Lalla’s consecration ceremony to be held on 22 January. He wanted to know if party president Mallikarjun Kharge and Sonia Gandhi would attend it. Kharge was equivocal. He said it was a “personal invitation” to him as leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and he would decide what to do at an appropriate time.
“Really! So, top leaders from across India gather, and you don’t find the Ayodhya Ram temple, the BJP’s central plank in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, important enough to discuss?” I asked a senior Congress leader Thursday evening. His response was rather philosophical: “Bhagwan Ram ka vanvaas 14 saal ka hi tha (Lord Ram’s exile was for 14 years). Hamaara toh pataa nahin kitna chalega (no idea how long our exile from power will continue). Leave it. You know how our party works.”
The high-level meeting ended with the Congress finalising Rahul Gandhi’s 66-day Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Imphal to Mumbai from 14 January. That would set the stage for the Gandhi vs Modi clash.
The essential message of the first leg of Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra was that the ruling BJP was targeting minority communities and creating a communal divide.
Gandhi has timed the second leg of the yatra to send out this central message during Ayodhya Ram Mandir’s inauguration. One doesn’t know how this hate vs love message would be perceived or interpreted when the entire country is expected to be Ramamaya or imbued with the spirit of Lord Ram.
On Saturday, Kharge said that attending the consecration ceremony in Ayodhya was a matter of “personal faith”, and anyone could go if they were invited. He didn’t say if he would also go. He will decide “very soon”. There is no word from Sonia Gandhi yet.
Also read: CWC meeting, manifesto committee, rejig—what’s behind last week’s activities in Congress
All izz not well
Why do Sonia Gandhi and Kharge seem to be in a dilemma over this? Ask Congress leaders and they offer four possible reasons.
The first may seem a bit facile–that it’s the Congress’ usual ostrich-like head-in-the-sand approach. Just close your eyes and repeat Aamir Khan’s advice in 3 Idiots (2009)–All izz well. It’s not the first time the party seems to be looking the other way when the storm is building up. The high command seems willing to wait out the Modi storm till 2029 or even 2034.
Ordinary Congress workers and leaders can, in the meantime, continue to sing along: “Confusion hi confusion hai, solution kuchh pataa nahin…honth ghuma, seeti bazaa/seeti bazaa ke bol/bhaiya all izz well.”
The second explanation that some Congress leaders offer is difficult to believe—the party high command thinks the Ayodhya event is electorally inconsequential, and that they can let it pass. Their assessment could be, as often echoed by their party colleagues, that the people won’t vote for the Ram temple because it’s secondary to what matters in their day-to-day lives. The Congress would, therefore, focus on what it thinks matters in a common man’s daily life–Hindenburg report on the Adani Group, undermining of institutions, democratic backsliding, misuse of central investigation agencies, Chinese ‘occupation’ across the Line of Actual Control, and so on.
The fact, however, is that the Ayodhya Ram temple will be the dominant theme of the 2024 Lok Sabha election discourse, whether the Congress likes it or not. Just check the donations received during the 44-day Sri Ramjanmabhoomi Ram Mandir Nidhi Samarpan Abhiyan in 2021. It’s Rs 2,100 crore from nearly 13 crore families.
If even two members from each of these families were to vote for what they donated for, it would account for 26 crore votes. Or so the ruling party leaders believe. Look at the pace and scale of the ‘Akshat’ outreach by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to “turn the entire country into Ayodhya”, which includes the distribution of akshat (sacred rice) among five crore families, and a 60-day campaign to bring devotees from across India to Ayodhya, among a host of other plans.
However, the third reason cited by Congress leaders has merits. Sonia Gandhi and Kharge see a BJP ‘trap’ behind the invitation from Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust. What better finale of the Ram temple movement than having the Congress high command and other Opposition leaders attend the temple’s inauguration? It would mark the ultimate triumph of the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activists and other affiliates of the RSS, whom the Congress labelled as ‘communal forces’. It would mean the Congress’ endorsement of the Ram temple movement, and, therefore, the Babri mosque demolition.
Also read: Modi govt’s push for EC Bill shows BJP is convinced it will rule India till 2069
The Babri question
The fourth reason cited by Congress leaders is their apprehension that attending the ceremony wouldn’t be seen favourably by the Muslim community. All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) party chief Asaduddin Owaisi and All India United Democratic Front chief Badruddin Ajmal have already sounded the alarm. Owaisi said that “we have lost our Masjid” where Muslims recited the holy Quran for 500 years, and that there was a conspiracy regarding three-four more mosques.
Ajmal has declared the BJP as the enemy of “our religion” and advised Muslims to “stay home” from 20 to 26 January.
Kharge and Sonia Gandhi must be listening to their remarks anxiously.
All of these explanations could be valid. Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said that invitees to the Ayodhya ceremony should be “free to make a personal choice, rather than be described as anti-Hindu if they don’t go or playing into the BJP’s hands if they do”.
This personal choice is difficult to make when it comes to Sonia Gandhi and Kharge. “Playing into the BJP’s hands” and being seen as endorsing the Ram temple movement can be politically as tricky as being labelled as anti-Hindu for ‘boycotting’ the ceremony. But if Sonia Gandhi must choose between these two options, the first is relatively safer, given that a majority of the Muslims accepted the Supreme Court verdict, however grudgingly. They seek closure in the construction of the temple at Lord Ram’s birthplace, putting an end to the debate on the victimisation of the Hindus and historical wrongs. Sonia Gandhi and Kharge may want to attend the Ayodhya event and also find closure by endorsing RSS sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat’s line: “Why look for a shivling in every mosque?”
Also read: JNU comrades, Kamal Nath’s cold feet, Gehlot’s insecurities—tales about Congress meltdown
Hinduism-Hindutva turf
With Rahul Gandhi showcasing his “mohabbat ki dukaan”, or shop of love, and Sonia Gandhi at the Ram Lalla consecration ceremony, some might be tempted to draw a parallel, albeit far-fetched, with the politically disastrous balancing acts of the Rajiv Gandhi government between Shah Bano case and opening of Babri mosque locks. They may not want to remember it but Rajiv Gandhi started his campaign in the 1989 general election from Ayodhya, promising Ram Rajya.
Weeks after the sixth anniversary of the Babri demolition–the first anniversary after she became the Congress president—Sonia Gandhi sought to re-position her party on this politically contentious issue. The Congress Working Committee (CWC) passed a resolution in January 1999 that “Hinduism is the most effective guarantor of secularism in India.” Former Lok Sabha Speaker PA Sangma, her loyalist then, had declared that she was “not a practicing Christian” and didn’t go to the Church.
Twenty-five years later, Sonia Gandhi may want to revisit the CWC resolution and see if the party needs to recalibrate its position, especially when the BJP has got it on a sticky wicket on the Hinduism-Hindutva turf. Her decision to attend the pran pratisthan ceremony or not will be the starting point of that revision. Sonia Gandhi can’t wish it away.
DK Singh is ThePrint’s Political Editor. Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)