After turning down consecration invite, Cong leaders take holy dip in Ayodhya’s Saryu river

AYODHYA Five days after the Congress leadership “respectfully declined” an invite for the Ram Temple inauguration on January 22, saying that an “incomplete temple” was being inaugurated for electoral gains, the party’s UP unit, led by its chief Ajay Rai, a former BJP man, arrived in Ayodhya on Monday to take a holy dip in river Saryu. The move was apparently an attempt to arrest the Congress’ political dip since it ceded its political grip in UP in 1989.

State Congress leaders also visited the temple of Ram Lalla (Lord Ram is worshipped as a baby here), and soon after, the religious visit gave way to politics with Rai’s sharp take that “no one has a copyright on Lord Ram.”

The dip was timed on Makar Sankranti, a period from which Hindus begin all auspicious tasks. Congress leaders accompanying Rai showed the intent in the party to check the BJP from cashing in on the temple appeal in 2024 Lok Sabha polls due in April-May.

The Congress leaders with Rai were Dheeraj Gurjar, party’s general secretary in-charge, new UP in-charge Avinash Pande, Aradhana Misra, ‘Mona’, one of the two party lawmakers to have won the 2022 UP polls, senior leader Deepender Singh Hooda – all considered close to the top Congress leadership.

Bansidhar Mishra of Overseas Congress also took a dip in Saryu and paid obeisance to Ram Lalla in Ayodhya.

The grand old party’s stand on Ayodhya and Ram Temple has been vacillating, baring the confusion in the party about the line to be attempted. A section of the party favours not allowing the BJP to “run away with the temple show” by reminding the people of its association with Ayodhya.

“It’s a fact that the Ramayan Mela in Ayodhya, the annual gathering of seers, was started by our party leader Sripati Mishra, the then UP chief minister in 1982. The lock of the Ram Temple was opened during the time of the then Prime Minister and our top leader, late Rajiv Gandhi ji in 1989. But all that is lost in the BJP narrative, and we seem to be clueless as of now,” a party leader said.

“It’s true that without the top Congress leadership’s consent, this yatra by the state Congress leaders to Ayodhya might not have been possible,” a senior Congress leader admitted though he wasn’t sure if such ‘symbolic overtures of soft Hindutva’ would be enough to counter the BJP’s “juggernaut”.

The Congress’ slide in UP has been quite stark – from a high of 1984 when the party won 83 of the 85 Lok Sabha seats in the then undivided UP (in 2000, five of these Lok Sabha seats went to UK after a separate hill state was carved out of UP) - to a solitary Rae Bareli seat in 2019 Lok Sabha – the journey has been mostly downhill, the 21 Lok Sabha seat show in 2009 being an aberration.

While Rai maintained that the Monday visit was “pre-decided” and sought to delink it from politics of religion, former UP Congress chief Nirmal Khatri, a grand nephew of socialist leader Acharya Narendra Dev, felt that the effort was needed somewhere else.

Khatri was among the 21 Lok Sabha MPs to have won from UP then and since his 2009 win from Faizabad – the district Yogi Adityanath government renamed as Ayodhya in 2018 – he was the last of the Congress representatives from the place now high in the BJP’s scheme of things.

“I was going through a list of Congress leaders who have quit the party and found that most of them like Jitin Prasada, RPN Singh, Milind Deora among others had these things in common - appointed ministers during Manmohan Singh’s tenure, close to the then leadership, were moneyed, e-savvy, weren’t connected with masses but were close to leaders. Even now, many of them are trying their luck (in BJP) but haven’t been successful yet,” Khatri posted on X.

“Wish that the party learns a lesson from these incidents in future,” he added.

The confusion about how to approach the issue of Ram Temple and Ayodhya isn’t limited to the Congress alone.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati, who too has been invited for Ram Temple inauguration, didn’t clear the air on the subject during her birthday presser on Monday. Her party’s state chief Vishwanath Pal, who hails from Ayodhya, confirmed that he would visit the temple “anytime later.”

He added, “I was born in Ayodhya and don’t need an invite to visit Lord Ram, whose temple I have been frequenting since childhood.”

Dimple Yadav, wife of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav whose birthday was also celebrated on Monday, had earlier said if the party leadership got an invite, they would surely visit Ayodhya. She gave a statement urging the BJP-VHP-RSS, that has made an appeal to people to light earthen lamps on January 22, to ensure that “poor are also supplied with ghee”, to ensure that they are able to light the lamps.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has cleared that Ram Temple invite has been received, but he would visit Ayodhya with his family after the January 22 inauguration.

CONGRESS FLAG VANDALISED

Some people were seen vandalising the Congress flag near the new corridor that leads to the Ram Janmabhoomi on Monday.

“Some anti-social elements arrived, snatched our flag and hurled abuses at the party workers. This is a shameful act as Ram Temple belongs to all,” said Congress women’s wing in-charge from Ayodhya.

“We want to make it clear that there should be no doubt about our firm belief in Lord Ram. There is no one in the nation who doesn’t respect Lord Ram. The temple is being built today, but we went there whenever we got time, even when the temple was not there. The temple was made on the orders of the court. The Congress never opposed it and neither stopped anyone from going there nor compelled anyone to do so. People are emotionally connected with it. I personally feel bad when we see politicisation of temple and polarization in its name,” she said.