State Congress Leaders divided on their support to inauguration programme
By Pradeep Kapoor
Terming the Ram Mandir inauguration as BJP-RSS-VHP event, the opposition parties of Uttar Pradesh have maintained distance from the program. Realising that BJP will take political benefits of the grand event to mobilise Hindu votes during forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, the opposition parties also want to be seen as Ram bhaktas.
Former chief Minister and national President of Samajwadi Party Akhilesh Yadav politely declined the invite to attend the ceremony and said he would visit the temple later on. Few hours before the inauguration of Ram temple, Akhilesh tweeted a couplet which talked about Siyaram.
At the same time the SP president is involved in construction of huge temple of Lord Shiva in his hometown Itawah. Akhilesh Yadav too has become very demonstrative regarding his visits to various temples and public display of observing puja and festivals.
Samajwadi Party leader is also aware about people's memory of firing on karsewaks at Ayodhya in 1990 to protect Babri Mosque. After this incident, Mulayam Singh Yadav became very popular in muslim community. Since then his party is getting massive support of muslim voters in successive elections.
During 2022 assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party got unprecedented support from muslim community which increased the tally of the MLAs three times more. Recently Samajwadi Party leaders Shivpal and Swami Prasad Maurya defended the decision of Mulayam Singh Yadav government to protect Babri Mosque.
It is to be seen as to how Samajwadi Party deals with the post inauguration euphoria of Hindutva forces after the inauguration of Ram temple. That is why Akhilesh Yadav is working hard to strengthen his PDA alliance of backwards, dalits and Muslims.
Similar is the problem with Congress Party leadership which was also caught in the same dilemma whether to participate in the inauguration or not. Central leaders who were invited declined saying that it was BJP-RSS program.
The fact remains that that the statues of Ram Lalla were placed during the regime of Jawaharlal Nehru. The movement for Ram Janmabhumi was first started by Congress leader Dau Dayal Khanna and later on taken up by VHP.
It was during the regime of Rajiv Gandhi at the centre and Veer Bahadur Singh in the state that the locks were removed from Babri Mosque. Then again during the regime of ND Tiwari, the Shilanyas for Ram temple was felicitated by Rajiv Gandhi government.
The mishandling of Ayodhya issue by Congress saw erosion of Hindu votes to BJP and Muslim votes to Samajwadi Party and Harijans were won over by BSP under the leadership of Kansiram-Mayawati.
While state leaders under the leadership of UPCC president Ajay Rai visited Ayodhya for darshan few days before the inauguration of Ram Temple. Former MP of Ayodhya and former UPCC president Nirmal Khatri was invited to attend the inauguration which he accepted and participated.
There are leaders like Acharya Pramod Krishnan who publicly criticised the leadership for not participating in the inauguration. At the same time Acharya Pramod Krishnan who was Congress candidate for Lok Sabha polls from Lucknow was full praise for PM Narendra Modi for ensuring construction of Ram Temple following Supreme Court order.
It is going to be a testing time for Congress to deal with Hindutva forces within the party and outside during Lok Sabha polls.
BSP national president and former chief minister Mayawati welcomed the inauguration of Ram temple at Ayodhya and thanked the organisers for the invitation. Mayawati said that she would also welcome construction of the mosque ordered by Supreme Court. But she avoided any statement whether she would attend or not.
When there is a continuous decline in vote share of her party Mayawati has announced that her party would not join NDA or INDIA. BSP contesting Lok Sabha polls alone is bound to help BJP.
(IPA Service)
