Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday said that the Congress will regret its decision to turn down the invitation for the inauguration ceremony of Lord Ram Temple in Ayodhya later this month.
This came after senior Congress leaders–Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury–‘declined’ the invitation to the ‘Pran Pratistha’ ceremony of Lord Ram Lalla in Ayodhya on January 22.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh alleged that the grand event is “clearly a Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh event”.
Union Minister Puri, while speaking to ANI, said that the grand old party should not be taken seriously.
“Leave them, let them say whatever they are saying, why do you take their words seriously? They themselves will regret their decision if they don’t go (on the Ram Temple inauguration ceremony),” he said.
While Union Minister Anurag Thakur attacked the party, stating that the people of the country will boycott them in the future.”This is the same Congress that described Lord Ram as an imaginary figure…Today, when Congress has boycotted the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ ceremony, it can be clearly seen that the people of India will also boycott them in the coming future,” Thakur said while speaking to reporters.
Reacting to the development, BJP national spokesperson Nalin Kohli told PTI, “The Congress is officially saying that its senior leaders will not be there in Ayodhya on January 22 should come as no surprise because over the last few decades, it really took no steps to see that there should be a temple in Ayodhya.” The BJP leader said that the former Congress-led UPA government had in fact filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court to deny the existence of Lord Ram.
“They never wanted an early hearing of the issue. Now that a temple has come up there, the very fact that they are saying they won’t be there is part of what they have always believed. They didn’t want a temple there,” he added.
Kohli said the Congress’ allegation that it is an event of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is just “an excuse”.
“Because in reality, this does not fit with the Congress party’s own thinking. Otherwise they would have been there out of affection for Lord Ram and would have been in Ayodhya and share the excitement of millions of Indians all across the world and India,” the BJP leader added.
BJP MP Manoj Tiwari also derided the Congress leaders for declining the invitation, saying that “Ram Rajya of Treta Yug” is back in India today under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule and those who will not attend the consecration ceremony at the Ram temple in Ayodhya on January 22 will “repent” for the rest of their life.
In a veiled reference to the Congress, Tiwari expressed “surprise” over the Ram temple trust extending invitations to “those who never wanted construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and even filed an affidavit in the court calling Lord Ram an imaginary figure”.
“Yet they have been invited. Despite this they have lost their mind. I realise that Ravana had also lost his mind in Treta Yug,” Tiwari told PTI.
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