Hours after Brinda Karat announced that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) would skip the consecration ceremony of Ram Mandir, the BJP took potshots at the party on Tuesday (26th December).
Senior leader Meenakshi Lekhi remarked, “The invitations have been sent to all. Those called by Lord Ram will only reach (Ayodhya, for Pran Pratishtha’ ceremony of Ram Temple)”
The Background of the Controversy
Senior CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat on Tuesday (26th December) her party would skip the grand consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22.
Defending the decision to give the grand consecration ceremony, which is to be headlined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a miss, the veteran Left leader said her party doesn’t subscribe to combining religion with politics and neither does it stand for the ‘politicisation’ of a religious event.
“Our party will not attend the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. We respect the religious sentiments of the people but they (BJP) are combining religion with politics. This is an attempt to politicise a religious programme. This is not right,” Karat, a member of the CPI(M)’s Politburo, told ANI on Monday.
“Using religion as a political weapon or for advancing a political agenda is not right…It is not right what these people are doing, it’s purely political,” the former Rajya Sabha MP said
“Politics and religion must be separated and kept at a distance. Mixing them only advances the RSS agenda. When religion is used is a political weapon or a tool to advance an idea or agenda, it loses respect,” Karat added.
On whether the CPI(M) was boycotting the event, the veteran Left leader said, “There is no question of boycott. We have an understanding that using a religious function as a political weapon isn’t right.”
