NEW DELHI: Politics around invitations to the January 22 Ram Temple consecration intensified on Thursday with the BJP accusing the Congress of declining invite to the ceremony to suit appeasement politics and the latter citing top Hindu seers to justify its decision.
Hours after the BJP said the Congress had boycotted every occasion when India’s history took a turn for the better from inauguration of a new Parliament building and presidential banquet for G20 leaders to GST rollout Congress veteran Siddaramaiah said even the Shankaracharyas had decided to skip ceremony in Ayodhya.
“The use of Ram Temple for political gain, as criticised by four Shankaracharyas who have boycotted the installation ceremony, has turned a unifying event into one that divides Hindus, which is unfortunate,” said Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah with Congress leaders asking if the revered Hindu saints were also “playing politics”.
As political heat rose, divisions surfaced even among the four Shankaracharyas, with two backing and two criticising the ceremony.
The Shankaracharyas head four revered Hindu shrines — Jyotir Math (Uttarakhand); Dwarka Math (Gujarat); Puri (Odisha) and Sringeri Math (Karnataka).
Swami Avimukteshwarananda of Jyotir Math questioned the consecration of an idol in an incomplete temple and Swami Nischalananda Saraswati of Puri objected to the presence of PM Narendra Modi at a religious ceremony.
Meanwhile, Shankaracharyas of Sringeri and Dwarka Swami Bharati and Sadanad Saraswati publicly said they had not expressed displeasure over ‘Pran Pratistha’ in Ayodhya.
“The Sringeri Shankaracharya has not given any such message. This is false propaganda,” a Sringeri Math statement said. Dwarka Shankaracharya denied having spoken of refusing to attend the consecration on January 22.
While Hindu seers made their points, BJP’s Sudhanshu Trivedi recalled late PM Jawaharlal Nehru’s absence from the restoration of the historic Somnath Temple in May 1951.