(Editor's note: This piece was published a few hours before the Congress party officially declined the invitation to attend the consecration of the Ram Mandir.)
The ongoing tussle within the INDIA bloc over the division of seats and leadership posts could well prove to be a minor issue in its combined fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It faces a bigger challenge in finding an effective counter to the ruling party' aggressive Hindutva ideology.
From love jihad and the hijab ban to cow slaughter and conversions, the opposition, especially the Congress, has consistently struggled to find a convincing response to these volatile issues. The latest test comes by way of the invitations extended to the INDIA bloc leaders for the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya on 22 January.
Congress is Yet to Take a Final View Regarding Its Attendance
The invitations for the grand ceremony, which is set to showcase the newly-constructed Ram Temple and Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its chief “architect”, have led to confusion and division within the INDIA bloc. The indecision in the ranks is understandable. If the opposition leaders don’t accept the invite, they will be branded anti-Hindu, and if they do attend the consecration ceremony, they will end up as mere adjuncts of the BJP.
Among the INDIA bloc constituents, CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury was quick to reject the invite on the ground that the inauguration ceremony had been converted into a state-sponsored event, calling it a “straightforward politicisation of religious belief of the people.”
There is no official word from West Bengal Mamata Banerjee, but she too is unlikely to attend the consecration ceremony for the same reason. Uddhav Thackeray has publicly declared he will not be accepting the invitation as the planned ceremony at Ayodhya was nothing more than a BJP event. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has been ambivalent on this issue while Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad Yadav and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar have yet to respond to the invite.
As for the Congress, the party finds itself in a bind over the invitations extended to Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary. It’s been over two weeks since the invites were sent but the Congress is yet to take a final view on the subject.
While its leadership mulls over the issue, divergent views are being expressed by party leaders, reflecting the dilemma faced by the Congress. For instance, a section of the party’s Kerala unit has urged their leaders not to participate in the ceremony following pressure from local Muslim organisations, while there are others like senior leader Digvijaya Singh who feel otherwise.
The Coalition Would Prefer to Present a United Front
The Congress obviously has its compulsions in taking a stand on this issue as there is no doubt that the consecration ceremony has been converted into a BJP spectacle with an eye on the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. Given that it is not faith but politics that is propelling the BJP to organise the event on such a grand scale, it is difficult for the Congress to attend the ceremony.
The question is: should the Congress stand by and watch as the Prime Minister presides over this ceremony, presenting himself as Hindu Hriday Samrat indirectly pushing the BJP’s majoritarian agenda with the sole objective of wooing voters? Or should the Congress leaders accept the invitation primarily to deny an opportunity to the BJP to accuse the grand old party of minority appeasement?
As it is, the Congress has been battling this BJP campaign for the last ten years but with little success. Rahul Gandhi, in particular, has made it a point to visit local temples on his countrywide tours and has described himself as a Shiv Bhakt while the Congress has proclaimed he is a janeudhari Brahmin.
But this attempt at soft Hindutva has failed to alter public perception about the Congress which has been successfully kept alive by the BJP. It is highly unlikely that the BJP will let go of this campaign even if Congress leaders were to participate in the ceremony. And nor will the presence of the Congress leaders at the ceremony help the party electorally.
Before taking a final call on this matter, the Congress will be hard put to ignore the views of the other members of the INDIA bloc. Though individual parties are taking an independent stand on the Ram Temple invitations, the opposition coalition would prefer to present a united front. With the INDIA bloc parties pulling in different directions over seat sharing and leadership posts, its political rivals will get a fresh issue to charge that the opposition alliance lacks cohesion. The other option for the INDIA bloc leaders is to skip the ceremony and pay obeisance at the Ram Temple on another day.
Writing in the Asian Age, former diplomat and Rajya Sabha member Pavan K Verma suggested that the opposition could have diluted the BJP’s narrative of taking exclusive credit for the construction of the Ram Temple by underlining that it was the Supreme Court verdict which facilitated the building of the temple while pointing out that Lord Rama belongs to all.
But it would, at best, be a face-saver. The opposition stands little chance of convincing the public with this argument given the ongoing grand preparations for the 22 January ceremony, the well-orchestrated media campaign relaying every detail of the temple’s architecture, and the Prime Minister’s carefully cultivated projection as the grand master of religious ceremonies. The opposition does not have the wherewithal to take on the BJP’s well-oiled publicity machinery.
(The writer is a senior Delhi-based journalist. She can be reached at @anitaakat. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author's own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)
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