The Congress party has decided to boycott the much-vaunted Pran Pratishtha ceremony on January 22. The Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust had invited Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi, party President Mallikarjun Kharge and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the party’s leader in the Lok Sabha some weeks ago. After long deliberations, the party has declined the invitation.
Of the several reasons cited by the Congress, two stand out.
First, the Congress believes the Pran Pratishtha is a “BJP-RSS event” while “religion is a personal matter” and Lord Ram is “revered by millions” in the party. Second, the Congress objects to the BJP turning the Ram Mandir into a “political project”.
The first charge is the easiest to debunk.
The event is not a “BJP-RSS event”. The Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust is organising the Pran Pratishtha event. This trust was set up by the Modi government on orders of the Supreme Court. The construction of the Ram Mandir that has been undertaken by the trust relies on donations from Hindus, not public funds. It is the trust that is sending out the invites for the January 22 event and not the BJP-RSS as being alleged by the Congress party.
It makes no sense for the Congress to reject an invitation from a trust set up on the apex court’s orders. Unless of course, it has little faith in the wisdom and impartiality of the topmost court in the land. And if this is the case, will the Congress also snub an invite from the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation Trust to inaugurate the mosque which it has been tasked to build in Ayodhya by the Supreme Court?
Remember, the apex court has granted five acres of land to the Muslim community to build a mosque. The SC felt that it needed to compensate the Muslim community for the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
Moreover, the Congress has claimed that the party revers Ram who lives within the hearts of millions of its workers. But by rejecting the invitation to attend the Pran Pratishtha, the Congress runs the risk of contradicting itself.
It may be recalled that in a 2007 affidavit before the Supreme Court, the UPA stated that there is “no historical proof of Lord Ram or any events in Ramayana”. Why would a party that revers the quintessence of Bharat has submitted an affidavit questioning his existence? Even some of the subcontinent’s Muslim icons have never gone as far as doubting Ram’s existence. For the poet laureate Iqbal, Ram was “Nizam-e-Hind” and others like Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, even eulogised Hinglaj, a cave in Balochistan, where Lord Ram meditated.
The Guru Granth Sahib has more than five hundred reverential mentions of Lord Ram. None of these holies or worthies have ever questioned Ram’s existence, perhaps aware that doing so would be considered an act of contempt by most Hindus.
So, then why did the Congress go so far as to hurt Hindu sentiments when it was in power at the Centre?
Perhaps, the Congress party’s dismissal of Lord Ram is a direct consequence of the trouble it is having in shedding the ideological baggage of the past.
Remember, in 1949, then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had asked then United Provinces (the name Uttar Pradesh was referred to by them) Chief Minister Govind Ballabh Pant to remove the idol of Ram Lalla from Ram Janmabhoomi. This idol was mysteriously placed there on the intervening night of Dec 22-23, 1949.
Court records suggest that Nehru was deeply upset with this happenstance. The then DM of Ayodhya, KKK Nayar, who refused to comply with the orders was even shown the door. The hounding of Nayar and Nehru’s antipathy towards the placing of the idols is always talked of as an example of the Congress party’s disregard for not just Lord Ram but the sentiments of his bhakts.
The Congress must urgently reconsider its stand on boycotting the Pran Pratishtha of Bharat’s Maryada Purush. And if it needs some inspiration, it can look to another guiding light from its past, Mahatma Gandhi – one of India’s greatest sons – who exhaled the essence of Ram as life drained from his body.
Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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