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Analysis National

Not expecting more Hindu votes, Congress decides to guard Muslim vote swing

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Niraj Sharma
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Ram Mandir Ram Temple

Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Adhir Ranjan Choudhury (From front to back)

New Delhi: With the Congress party declining the invitations to attend the Ayodhya Ram Temple inauguration ceremony after sitting on it for three weeks, the question is being raised about the intent of the BJP.

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A day after the invitations for the Ram Temple opening were sent to opposition leaders, NewsDrum was the first news platform “globally” to report that Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, president Mallikarjun Kharge may ignore the invite.

After a few days, this became the talking point for every media outlet in the country.

However, Congress tried to divert the media attention from this topic and briefed select journalists off the record that both Sonia and Kharge may attend the ceremony. 

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It soon came out with a statement that the decision would be taken and communicated at an appropriate time.

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13 days later, the party chose Jan 10 as the appropriate day for declining the invitation.

The top leadership of the grand old party has been ignoring invitations sent by the Narendra Modi government, recent events being Independence Day celebrations at the Red Fort and the inauguration of the new Parliament building.

BJP spokespersons have claimed that the ruling party has been extending the invitations with clean intent. 

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However, political observers believe that the BJP sent the invitation to expose the grand old party despite knowing that it would skip the historic event.

Immediately after the invitation, sources told NewsDrum that the Opposition including Congress will not attend the ceremony because they don't want to upset the Muslim community.

“The difficulty for the Congress was that it would be branded anti-Hindu, a charge it has been facing ever since the independence of the country but it took the plunge with the belief that the “secular” term attached to the party would work as a shield and the INDIA alliance partners, including the Indian Muslim League, will not be upset,” said senior journalist Shekhar Iyer.

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To distance themselves from the Ram Temple opening ceremony, each opposition leader said that “religion is a personal matter” and accused the BJP of mixing it with politics.

The statement of the Congress party declining the invitation said exactly the same.

Many political observers were quick to denounce the excuse.

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Sharing an old tweet from the official handle of Congress, Advaita Kala wrote on X, “Clearly politics is not an issue when it comes to the Vatican but is when it comes to Ram.”

The Congress had made a letter written by Sonia Gandhi public on August 30, 2016, in which she assured Pope Francis that two representatives would attend the religious Canonisation ceremony of Mother Terasa.

Many shared Rahul Gandhi’s pictures of visiting temples during elections and asked if religion was actually personal for the grand old party. 

On BJP using the event for electoral gains, the other charge by Congress, Iyer said that the party was born out of the Ram temple movement. 

“Why would they leave it out? It was incumbent upon Congress to claim credit for the Ram temple as they did in the past,” he added.

Earlier this week, NewsDrum had reported how Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru passed a ‘gag order’ against Somnath Temple opening coverage.

Narendra Modi Sonia Gandhi Mallikarjun Kharge Ayodhya ram temple Adhir Ranjan Choudhury Opposition alliance INDIA INDIA bloc Ayodhya ram temple opening Ayodhya ram temple inauguration Ayodhya Ram temple consecration
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