Congress and the Ram Temple

Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement that the Ram temple in Ayodhya will be completed by 2024 seems to have made the Opposition uneasy yet again. On the one who hand, we find Rahul Gandhi trying to make a statement in his Bharat Jodo Yatra, holding the hand of a little boy dressed like a Brahmin kid (never mind the fact that no one bothered to tell RaGa that the holy thread the child was wearing was on the wrong shoulder). On the other, the Congress president, Mallikarjun Kharge lashed out at Amit Shah for predicting that the Ram temple would get completed by 2024, asking him whether he was the Mahant of the temple. This ambivalence is typical of the Congress. Digvijay Singh and Sonia Gandhi express their sympathy for terrorists killed in the Batla House encounter while Rahul Gandhi and his sister go temple hopping. Media reports quoted the newly-elected Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu as claiming that the electoral victory of the Congress was illustrative of the success of its anti-Hindutva campaign. There are several other examples—Shashi Tharoor and other Congress leaders claim that it was Veer Savarkar who first proposed Partition, but have they read what the founder of Aligarh Muslim University, Sir Syed had to say? Or for that matter the preachings of his predecessor, the cleric who was called a Calipha, Syed Ahmed Barelvi, who moved from Delhi and established his headquarters in Balakot in current day Pakistan? They should study history to understand why he moved to Balakot in the first place. Not long ago, Mallikarjun Kharge was quoted as saying that if the BJP is re-elected to power, Sanatana Dharma and RSS would rule! Did Kharge hear what he was saying? If Sanatana Dharma does not prevail in India then where is it supposed to? Coming back to the issue of the Ram temple, it was due to veteran BJP leader, LK Advani‘s Rath Yatra in the late 80s and early 90s, that the Ram Temple issue gained momentum, although it had been a burning sentimental subject for the Hindus for centuries. However, the so-called secular lobby, including the Congress, the Left parties, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party and Lalu Yadav’s RJD, bitterly opposed the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. The RJD supremo who was the Chief Minister of Bihar, issued orders to arrest Advani during the course of his Rath Yatra, while the police on Mulayam Singh Yadav’s instructions, opened fire on Kar Sevaks in Ayodhya. This, in brief, sums up the stand of the Congress and other “secula r” political parties on the Ram temple issue. Another instance of the duplicity of the Congress on the Ram temple subject is illustrated in its stand on the Ram Setu issue. Didn’t the Congress oppose the matter questioning its very existence? The Left party’s make no bones about where they stand on such subjects, but the Congress is always caught between two stools. It eyes its minority vote bank, but makes occasional feeble attempts to “look Hindu.” It has suffered electoral reverses in recent times because of the dual stance it adopted on sensitive issues. The Ram temple matter is yet another case in point.