How Congress Erred in Rejecting the Ram Temple Invite.

Congress and other opposition parties have boycotted the ‘Ram idol consecration’ despite being invited. They have two excuses for this. The first excuse is that this consecration event became a BJP political event, and the second is that the four Shankaracharya boycotted the consecration. Let’s discuss this issue.

I agree that Ram Temple is a political subject, as the BJP is very much involved in the Ram Temple movement. It has promised in its manifesto to construct a Ram temple at Ajodhya. For Congress and opposition, the very Ram temple is also a political event. For the years, they have objected to the Babri Masjid demolition and promised for re-building of Babri Masjid. So, it’s a political event, for sure.

However, the Supreme Court’s decision made the construction of the Ram temple possible, and a trust carried it out in accordance with its instructions. A separate plot of land is also given for construction of Babri Masjid through a trust, as mandated by the Supreme Court. The BJP would always like to present the Ram temple as deliverance of their promise.

Regarding Shankaracharya, two of them, Shankaracharya of Sringeri Sarada Pitham and Dvaraka Sharad Pitham gave a written explanation that they haven’t boycotted or rejected the invitation. Rather, because of their other engagements, they are not able to attend the consecration. They also said that they would attend at a later day. At the same time, they have expressed satisfaction on the program, procedures, dates etc. and severely criticized people who claim that the Shankaracharyas are in disagreement with the trust ‘Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra’. That means two Shankaracharyas have no dissatisfaction or disagreement.

Puri Govardhan Pith Shankaracharya has said categorically that ‘What will I do there as the Shankaracharya, when Modiji (PM Modi) will touch the idol and install it there? Am I expected to clap and hail him while chanting victory slogans? There is also a dignity to my position,” Here point must be noted that Puri Shankaracharya has raised issue of touching the idol by Prime minister Narendra Modi. It’s to be noted that his Guru ‘Swami Karapatri’ led a movement during framming of Constitution against Ambedkar’s ‘Hindu Code bill’ which allows ‘Harijans’ to have a ‘Sparsh Darshan’ of Kashi Viswanath’. The untouchability and casteism was supported by him. His disciple, the present Puri Shankaracharya also threatened to boycott Jagannath Rath Yatra. Well, I don’t know if Shankaracharyas can boycott any of God’s program or not, but with such threats or movements, most of the time, they became controversial because of ego attached to such threatening. Point is whether Congress or opposition can afford to agree on this no-touch issue, especially by non-Brahmins.

Now let’s come to Jyoti Math Shankaracharya, who is constantly speaking against the consecration event. He also admitted that he’s not invited. The real issue is that, although he claims to be Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, but officially his coronation is stayed by Supreme Court of India and also not recognised by Akharas and Sadhus. Well, he is recognised by Sringeri and Dvaraka Shankaracharyas, but still his coronation is not legal. Further, he’s a controversial political personality with his political bias. Thus, whatever he says will amount to be a political opinion. If Congress & opposition don’t want the Ram temple politicization, then they shouldn’t have referred him.

Interestingly, Congress is arguing at the behest of Swami Avimukteswaranda that the temple is incomplete and thus the consecration can’t be done.  It’s very easy to cite the examples how consecration can be done without a temple. But I will tell three facts. First, Ram idol was established in disputed Babri Masjid and following the demolition of Babri Masjid, then Ram idol was placed under a tent. Was there a temple?

Second, what’s the ‘Paran Pratishtha’ means? The simple answer is that before Prana Pratistha, an idol is nothing but a doll/statue. Once the consecration is done, the idol represents the God. Every year in our various Pujas like Durga Puja, Ganapati Puja and others, we do consecration of idols before worshiping and after worshiping, we do ‘Visarajan’. That means the idols are like God between the Consecration and Visarajan. In Jagannath temple, the consecration of new idols is done during Nabakalebar and ‘visarajan’ is done for old idols.

Now, instead of explaining my third point, I would better show you the image of Somanath temple during consecration and the image of completed temple afterward to help you understand the point.

In 1951, Somnath temple

Present-day Somnath temple

Where have Congress and opposition erred?

As I explained before, the Ram temple is a political issue. Interestingly, it’s a political issue for BJP as well as anti-BJP parties. The BJP is trying to polarize the majority community in the name of Ram temple reconstruction, whereas anti-BJP parties are trying to polarize the minority, especially the Muslim community, in opposing the Ram temple construction. Post-Supreme Court verdict, when it’s clear that Ram temple is to be constructed on Janmasthan and Babri Masjid at some other place, the Congress and alleys should have stopped at least their politicization of Ram temple. They should have attended the Ram idol consecration event wholeheartedly, not making it a BJP-only event. They could have claimed that Ram Temple has been constructed because of a Supreme Court verdict to which all Indians agreed.

The issue is that the rejection of the invitation is viewed as anti-Ram and may be a tactic to polarize the minority vote. But the fact is that in modern politics, whenever there’s a minority polarisation, there’s also a majority counter-polarization. Shouldn’t Congress do a proper deliberation on this issue, especially when the 2024 general election is too close?