Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has accused the Congress party of being "anti-Hindu" after its leaders declined an invitation to attend the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Sarma claimed that the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) had given Congress a "golden opportunity to reduce its sin" by extending an invitation to the Shri Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha Mahotsava. However, he argued that the Congress did not deserve such an invitation in the first place due to their historical stance against the construction of the Ram temple.
"The Congress leadership did not deserve such an invitation in the first place for their views against the Ram Mandir from the very beginning," Sarma stated. He further suggested that by accepting the invitation, the Congress could have symbolically offered an apology to the "Hindu Samaj."
Referring to a statement issued by Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, Sarma criticized the party's decision to decline the invitation. Ramesh had mentioned that Lord Ram is worshipped by millions, but religion is a personal matter.
"The RSS/BJP have long made a political project of the temple in Ayodhya. The inauguration of the incomplete Temple by the leaders of the BJP and the RSS have been obviously brought forward for electoral gains," Ramesh stated in the released statement.
Abiding by the 2019 Supreme Court judgment and honouring the sentiments of millions who revere Lord Ram, Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Mallikaarjun Kharge, and Adhir Ranjan Choudhury have "respectfully declined the invitation to what is an RSS/BJP event," Ramesh added.
The Congress, after some lack of clarity on the party's stand and apparent hesitation about being seen as being against a Hindu temple, finally came to the position that the consecration is a politically organised programme spearheaded by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, rather than a religious one of temple inauguration presided over by religious seers, and the Congress would avoid being a party to it.
But Sarma concluded by comparing the Congress's decision to the historical instance of Pt Nehru's stance on the Somnath Temple, stating that history would continue to judge them as an "anti-Hindu party."