Congress is the oldest party in the country and yet it has the biggest existential crisis amongst a lot of political parties. The Ram Mandir Bhoomi Pujan has shed a light on the deep fissures within the party which is disoriented on whether to support the Ram Mandir issue or not. A clear lack of cohesive strategy from the party high-command is driving Congress further away from the Hindus–for whom the issue of Ram Mandir has transcended to a cultural fight to battle the hegemony of left-liberal, Marxist and the secularist cabal.
Congress is in a classic Catch-22 situation over the Muslim and Hindu votes. Supporting the Ram Mandir issue would mean playing right into the hands of BJP and losing the somewhat loyal Muslim vote bank and not entering the Ayodhya discourse at all would mean lodging the final nail in the coffin for Congress’ chances of making any comeback in the Hindi heartland.
Congress leader Kumar Ketkar was recently seen on television questioning the existence of Bhagwan Ram. Ketkar in the discussion outrightly denied the historical existence of Shri Ram and instead casted aspersions about the Hindu God being a creation of literature.
Just to jog the reader’s memory a bit, Congress is the same party which in 2007 filed an affidavit in Supreme Court to register its opposition to the demand to scrap the Sethusamudram project as it would damage the Ram Setu.
It is also important to note, the 2007 affidavit of Congress unabashedly declined to acknowledge the existence of Bhagwan Ram and therefore it shouldn’t come as a surprise if the likes of Ketkar are playing along these similar lines.
“Valmiki Ramayana and Ramcharitmanas admittedly form an important part of ancient Indian literature, but these cannot be said to be historical records to incontrovertibly prove the existence of the characters and occurrences of events depicted therein.” read the affidavit back then.
While one Congress leader is not earning any brownie points by vilifying the Hindu God, another Congress rear-guard Digvijaya Singh, hampered by his old-age has made a remark which can only be dubbed laughable and used as a good opening joke to break the ice during parties.
Digvijaya Singh on Monday claimed that former the Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, was the one who had laid the foundation stone for the Ram Mandir at Bhagwan Ram’s Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya.
“Shilanyas to ho chukka hai. Rajiv Gandhi ji kar chuke hain (the foundation stone for Ram Mandir has already been laid by Rajiv Gandhi)”, said Digvijaya Singh.
#WATCH Foundation stone has already been laid, Rajiv Gandhi ji did it: Digvijaya Singh, Congress on being asked about Kamal Nath's statement that Rajiv Gandhi also wanted #RamTemple to be constructed pic.twitter.com/BvViPC2KSI
— ANI (@ANI) August 3, 2020
Former Union Minister Salman Khurshid sounded pretty down and out about the justice served by the Supreme Court and iterated coldly that the building of Ram Mandir will have to be accepted somehow.
“It is a fact of life we have to recognise. It is a fact of life that does not give perfect justice in the eyes of some people. But it is approximate justice in the best possible circumstances…” said Salman Khurshid in a report published in The Indian Express.
While all these Congress stalwarts were making unnecessary statements and claims about the Ram Mandir and Shree Ram, one of the Gandhi siblings came out with a statement supporting the cause. But, not to forget that such has been Congress’ history, and its hatred for Hindus that netizens started calling her and her party out for the brazen hypocrisy.
https://twitter.com/ShefVaidya/status/1290545485069946880
In a statement, Priyanka Gandhi also said, “Lord Ram has been inspiring India since many Yugas.” This statement of Priyanka Gandhi is also superficially high on talk but low on substance. It still doesn’t iterate Congress’ actual line on the issue.
Meanwhile, another senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP from Anandpur Sahib, Manish Tewari, out of the blue, extended greetings to the fellow citizens ahead of the Ram Mandir Bhoomi Pujan, slated for August 5.
Tewari, who often is at loggerheads with BJP over any issue seemed to have gauged the public sentiment and instead of pandering Congress’ old line, went with the public discourse.
रघुपति राघव राजाराम,पतित पावन सीताराम
सीताराम सीताराम,भज प्यारे तू सीताराम
ईश्वर अल्लाह तेरो नाम, सब को सन्मति दे
भगवान I
राम मंदिर के भूमी पूजन पे सभी देश वासियों
को और सभी श्रद्धालुओं को कोटी कोटी बधाईI pic.twitter.com/mwxhc7A6bV
— Manish Tewari (@ManishTewari) August 4, 2020
After hundreds of years of a fight over the disputed spot when Supreme Court last year gave out the verdict in favour of the Ram Mandir, Congress had the golden opportunity to readjust its political compass, but so far it appears to be circumspect about commenting politically on the event.
When the struggles and aspirations of Hindus across the world are coming to fruition this Wednesday, the Congress party and its leaders are coming up with conflicting statements. One minute congress is in supporting the cause, another moment it is out and about spewing venom on media platforms.
The monkey-balancing from Congress is not doing any good to its fortunes and if it still chooses to go over the dark-side of demonizing and ostracizing Hindus, then even a miracle could not help Congress from vanishing from the political landscape of Hindi-heartland.