‘Seasonal Hindus’: Union minister Giriraj Singh slams Cong refusal to attend Ram temple event

The Congress in a statement said that Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Lok Sabha floor leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury will not attend the ceremony

Union minister Giriraj Singh on Thursday slammed Congress for declining invitation to attend the Ram temple ‘Pran Pratishtha’ ceremony in Ayodhya on January 22.

Union Minister for Rural Development Giriraj Singh(ANI)

“These people are seasonal Hindus, when they feel they have to get votes, they try to become soft Hindus. No one in the Congress has gone to Ayodhya since Jawaharlal Nehru. It was the Congress party itself that had done the work of pending the case in the court, hence they do not have the moral strength to go to Ayodhya,” the minister told news agency ANI.

On Wednesday, the Congress in a statement said that Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Lok Sabha floor leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury will not attend the ceremony, calling it a “RSS/BJP event.”

“Religion 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," the Congress said in a statement, evoking sharp criticism from the ruling BJP.

“Ram is our Lord. He represents the soul and the identity of Bharat. The turning down of the invitation to the Pran Pratishtha by the Congress is a rejection of India's identity and culture. It is because of such positions that the Congress takes that it has been reduced to the margins today,” former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was quoted by ANI as saying.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to attend the installation of the idol of Ram Lalla at the grand temple on January 22. As per temple officials, the ceremony will be held over a span of seven days starting from January 16. A priest from Varanasi, Lakshmi Kant Dixit, will perform the main rituals of the consecration ceremony of Ram Lalla on January 22.

(With PTI, ANI inputs)