Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday said the Congress had paved the way for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya by forsaking the cardinal principle of secularism enshrined in the Constitution. The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) had played second fiddle to the Congress leadership.
Mr. Vijayan veered away from the pandemic situation at his daily press conference to blame the Congress for the rise of right-wing majoritarian forces and Hindu identity politics in the country.
Soft Hindutva
He said he was not surprised that Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had welcomed the laying of the foundation stone for the temple. She had merely espoused the soft Hindutva line of the Congress. Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders had echoed the true sentiments of the Congress. “Are you surprised? I am not,” he told journalists. (Madhya Pradesh Congress president and former Chief Minister Kamal Nath had offered puja to a Ram idol in the run-up to the ceremony).
The CM said the Congress had brought the current “predicament” upon the country and itself by unabashedly towing a political line that brazenly appeased Hindu right-wing forces.
The Rajiv Gandhi government had opened the disputed site for Ram worship. The Congress in power at the Centre allowed ‘shilanyas’ at the contested spot later.
The Narasimha Rao government had turned a blind eye when Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) karsevaks stormed the Babri Masjid. The Congress leadership remained unmoved when the RSS demolished the structure in wanton violation of the law.
The Congress had scorned secular forces, which warned it repeatedly against succouring forces that embraced the politics of division, by stoking sectarian sentiments in the traditionally plural and culturally heterogeneous society. Now the party was paying the price for its follies, he said.
