New Delhi: Refusal to attend the consecration of the Ayodhya Ram temple has triggered a BJP attack at Opposition leaders, who have now been branded "Anti-Sanatan" (anti-Hindu). Besides Congress's Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, who turned down the January 22 ceremony invite yesterday, a poster on the BJP social media handle showed others who have been lukewarm about the mega event.
From its handle on X, formerly Twitter, the BJP tweeted, "Note the faces of the Sanatan opponents who rejected the invitation for the Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha ceremony...".
Senior Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury who received the invitation for the January 22 ceremony, declined yesterday, saying it was a "political project" of the BJP and its ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Religion, the Congress said, is a personal matter.
"But 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 has been obviously brought forward for electoral gain," read a statement from senior party leader Jairam Ramesh.
The Left leaders had sent a negative response earlier. The Trinamool Congress has made it clear that they would skip the event as well.
The Samajwadi Party, though, is undecided. While those invited by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad have turned it down, its MLAs are keen on going.
Since yesterday, BJP leaders have been flaying the Congress over the refusals. The party, already called anti-national, is now defying God, various BJP leaders said.
Accusing the Congress of not taking any steps towards building a temple in Ayodhya, BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli said the Congress officially declining the invite "should come as no surprise".
This is nothing new for those who called Lord Ram imaginary. This is the same Congress that once promised to rebuild the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. In 2024, the Congress that has boycotted Lord Ram will be boycotted by the people," said Union Minister Anurag Thakur.
Other leaders declared that the Congress has repeatedly insisted on boycotting historic momemts -- like the inauguration of the new Parliament building, enactment of the GST, presidential addresses to Parliament by Ram Nath Kovind and Droupadi Murmu -- because of its opposition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.