Congress’ ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’

The Congress party’s long prevarication over accepting the invitation to attend the consecration of the new Ram temple at Ayodhya shows how serious the dilemma was that the party has gone through over the matter. It has declined the invitation “respectfully” after considering it for about three weeks. A ‘respectful rejection’ is a difficult and often untenable action because respect and rejection are difficult to split and explain. The Congress has to make it clear that it has respect for Ram but also reject the politics associated with Ram. This is almost impossible because the temple represents both Ram and the politics around Ram, and for all practical purposes both are now seen to be owned by the BJP. The contradiction has been well recognised by the party’s observation in its statement that while religion is a personal matter, the RSS/BJP have long made a political project of the temple in Ayodhya. 

The Congress is right to maintain that it cannot become a part of the launch of the BJP’s campaign for the Lok Sabha elections, for that’s what the inauguration of an incomplete temple, and that too by the Prime Minister, amounts to, as even the Shankaracharyas, who too have decided to stay away from the event, have pointed out. Its problem was that while attendance would not help and would hurt in some ways, non-attendance would hurt in other ways. As the gains and losses in either course are still uncertain, it probably decided to take a decision where a principle meets with a practical consideration. The party could not have gone to a third place when the choice was between a rock and a hard place. The Congress is actually no stranger to Ayodhya. It had launched its Lok Sabha campaign from there in 1989 and even allowed a Shilanyas there. But the BJP has built an exclusionary politics around it now, and the Congress does not know how to respond to it. The prevarication and confusion and the eventual decision to “respectfully” decline the invitation came out of the party’s inability to respond to the new Ayodhya politics. 

There are many in the Congress who are not happy with the decision. Some have expressed it in public and announced that they would go to the function if they are invited. Some others are planning to go there on other days. The Karnataka government has decided to conduct special poojas in muzrai temples on the consecration day. All these are attempts to share the sentiment evoked around Ram in the coming days and not be left out of it. The BJP’s response was predictable. It has damned its principal opposition party as being anti-Ram and anti-Sanatan Dharma. It will be a challenge for the Congress to counter the campaign, especially when there are millions of people who worship Ram and whose devotion has been roused by the Ayodhya event.