To attend or not: Confusion in Congress Kerala unit over Ram Temple consecration ceremony invite

Meanwhile, the BJP in Kerala urged them on Thursday to clarify whether its leaders would participate in the consecration ceremony.

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‘Congress should not participate in it’

“The state unit’s position on this issue has been conveyed to AICC general secretary KC Venugopal,” Muraleedharan said earlier in the day, amid growing pressure from Muslim groups in the state against Congress leaders attending the ceremony.

“The Congress, at any cost, should not participate in it. That is the decision of the state leadership of the party. The sentiments of the state unit have been conveyed to Venugopal,” Muraleedharan told reporters.

He, however, said that the Congress is a national party that leads the anti-BJP INDIA Front, and an appropriate decision on the matter would be taken by the national leadership after discussing it with them.

Muraleedharan also noted that the Samajwadi Party, a major constituent of the INDIA bloc, has announced that it would participate in the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple.

Sudhakaran said that it is a decision to be taken by the national leadership of the party. “If they ask our position on the matter, we will convey it to them,” he told reporters.

When asked about Muraleedharan’s statement, the KPCC chief quipped, “Ask him about it.”

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‘Left party can take decisions easily’

Reacting to the CPI(M)’s decision to turn down the invitation to attend the inauguration of the Ram Temple, CWC member and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor said that the Left party can take a decision easily on the matter as they don’t have faith in any religion.

“There are no ideologies of the CPI(M) or the BJP within the Congress. We are seeing Hindutva as a political doctrine. It is not connected with the Hindu religion. So, we are neither the CPI(M) nor the BJP. Give us time to take a decision on the matter,” he told the media in Malayalam.

Congress leaders made the statements a day after Samastha, a prominent Muslim Sunni clerical body in Kerala, criticised the party for being indecisive about attending the consecration ceremony at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

The editorial in Suprabhatham, the mouthpiece of Samastha, accused the Congress of having a soft-Hindutva stance.

The Congress has not revealed whether its key leaders, including President Mallikarjun Kharge, former chief Sonia Gandhi, and Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, will attend the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on 22 January.

Despite receiving invitations, the party has not disclosed its stance on the matter but expressed gratitude for the invitations.

BJP urges for clarity

The BJP in Kerala urged the state unit of the Congress party on Thursday to clarify whether its leaders would participate in the consecration ceremony.

Slamming the grand old party for not yet announcing a final decision on its participation, BJP state chief K Surendran urged them to give the people of the state a clear answer.

While addressing a gathering, he also questioned whether the Congress was going to succumb to the threats posed by the Left parties and community leaders on this matter.

“The BJP wants to ask a simple question: Is the Congress going to yield to the threats raised by the Marxist party, Left Front partners, community leaders, and so on in this issue?” Surendran asked.

The statements by the state BJP chief came hours after the top leaders of the Congress’s Kerala state unit aired differing views on the political stance to be taken regarding the invitation to its national leadership to attend the Ayodhya Ram temple consecration ceremony.

(With PTI inputs)