Lucknow: Congress leader Sonia Gandhi has criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the timing and conduct of the Ram Temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya, alleging that it was hurriedly organised in an incomplete temple to gain electoral mileage ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
In her memoir ‘Belonging: A Journey of Love’, Sonia Gandhi writes that the temple was nowhere near complete in 2024, but its inauguration was turned into a major media event that the Prime Minister did not want to postpone because of the emotional appeal it held for the country’s Hindu majority.
In Chapter 37 of her book, she mentions that Modi ignored the advice and warnings of senior religious leaders (Shankaracharyas) against holding the Ram Temple consecration before the temple was complete and went ahead with the ceremony.
“The rituals were led by the Prime Minister himself, with the RSS chief at his side. It was a political spectacle witnessed by the whole country live on national TV and celebrated at every step by the media,” she writes.
Sonia also questions Prime Minister Modi’s decision to lead the rituals himself instead of allowing the religious heads, particularly the Shankaracharyas, to take the lead.
She further writes: “The ruling party was doing everything in its power to tilt the polls in its favour. The BJP’s road to power had started three decades earlier with the movement to construct a Ram temple in Ayodhya.”
The criticism comes against the backdrop of objections raised by some Shankaracharyas ahead of the 22 January 2024 consecration ceremony. Puri Shankaracharya Swami Nischalananda Saraswati and Jyotirmath Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand had questioned the decision to hold the ceremony before the temple’s construction was complete.
They had also raised questions over the Prime Minister performing rituals inside the sanctum sanctorum while the Shankaracharyas were reportedly allotted seats outside. Both religious leaders had declined to attend the ceremony, alleging that the event was being given a political colour.
Sonia’s remarks on Babri trigger BJP reaction
Days before the release of her book, Sonia also triggered a political controversy with her remarks on the demolition of the Babri Masjid in an interview with a media outlet.
Recalling 6 December 1992, when the Babri Masjid was demolished, Sonia said she broke down after watching the visuals of the incident on television.
She said the incident made her realise that she would have to fight a long battle for the secular India that Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and their contemporaries had tried to build.
Sonia also acknowledged that mistakes made by her own party had, to some extent, contributed to the rise of the BJP and its hardline Hindutva politics.
The remarks drew a sharp response from the BJP. Party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, addressing the media, said Sonia’s comments showed that “Babar was in the heart of the Congress then and is still there today.”
Trivedi further alleged that the Congress had moved away from Mahatma Gandhi’s idea of ‘Ram Rajya’ and had become confined to ‘Babar Raj’. Meanwhile, Iqbal Ansari, a former litigant in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi dispute, said the issue was now in the past.
Reacting to Sonia’s remarks, Ansari said the Supreme Court had already delivered its verdict and Muslims across the country had respected the judgment. He added that the matter was no longer relevant and should not be revived.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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