Congress party in kerala in a quandary over attending ram temple consecration

Congress party in kerala in a quandary over attending ram temple consecration

The Congress’s perceived ambivalence about attending the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya seems to have pushed the party into a quandary in Kerala and induced worry in the UDF about expending valuable political capital in terms of minority appeal ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress, which has championed the cause of the Sabarimala faith, appears extremely anxious about risking Hindu votes by boycotting the high-profile event.

Party general secretary K.C. Venugopal in New Delhi, dodged questions on whether the Congress leadership would accept the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust’s invitation to the temple sanctification on January 22. Earlier, Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan pushed the question into the AICC’s court.

IUML general secretary P.M.A. Salam warned the Congress against rising to the BJP’s bait. “Whether it is Ram temple or any other agenda, secular parties should be cautious not to play into the hands of the BJP,” he said in Kozhikode.

It does not help the Congress that influential Muslim organisations, primarily the Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama, feel that the CPI(M) and CPI have burnished the left’s secular credentials by shunning the temple trust’s invitation.

Samastha, for one, seems acutely sensitive that the promise of building a Ram temple over the ruins of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya has remained at the centre of Sangh Parivar politics and has spurred the BJP’s ascendancy.

In a hard-hitting editorial in its newspaper Suprabatham, the Samastha said the Congress’ “soft-Hindutva disposition” offers no credible alternative to the BJP’s “extreme Hindu majoritarian line and minorities and Dalits may be constrained to shift allegiance to “staunchly secular” political platforms.

In the meantime, Janata Dal (S) president Deve Gowda’s decision to attend the event has put the party’s State unitin an awkward position.