Congress seeks to recast Ayodhya narrative amid Ram Temple donation row
The Ayodhya dispute predates the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but the Ram Janmabhoomi movement became the key issue through which the party
The Ayodhya dispute predates the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but the Ram Janmabhoomi movement became the key issue through which the party challenged the Congress’ template of secularism, which sought to keep religion and electoral politics separate. The latest controversy over the alleged misappropriation of donations at the Ram Mandir has, however, given the Congress an opportunity to frame its attack around the Sangh Parivar’s control over the management of the temple. “The BJP-RSS have captured the temple administration in an unauthorised manner,” former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said while addressing a press conference at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) office on July 7. The Congress has mounted an unusually sustained campaign demanding action against the office-bearers of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust with Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) backgrounds. It has also asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to break his “silence” on the issue and order a Supreme Court-monitored investigation. The AICC has held eight press conferences in New Delhi and nearly 50 across the country over the past four days.
Though neither Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge nor Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has spoken on the issue, the party plans to raise the matter during the Monsoon Session of Parliament, which begins on July 20. The latest campaign reflects yet another nuanced repositioning by the Congress on Ayodhya, an issue on which the party’s approach has evolved repeatedly over the past four decades. The Congress government led by Rajiv Gandhi was accused of facilitating the early stages of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement when, in 1986, the locks of the disputed structure were ordered to be opened, allowing Hindu worshippers access to the site after a district court in Faizabad ruled that there was no valid executive order requiring the premises to remain locked. The move was seen as an attempt to assuage Hindu sentiment in the wake of the political fallout over the Shah Bano alimony case, in which the Supreme Court ruled that Muslim women were entitled to maintenance. When a section of the Muslim clergy protested against the order as interference in Muslim personal law, the Rajiv Gandhi government enacted the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, to dilute the top court’s order.
Three years later, in November 1989, the Narayan Dutt Tiwari-led Congress government in Uttar Pradesh permitted the shilanyas (foundation-laying ceremony) adjacent to the disputed structure. The government maintained that the proposed site for the shilanyas lay outside the disputed area and that permitting the ceremony would therefore not violate the status quo ordered by the courts. After the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, the Congress sharply distanced itself from the movement. Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao condemned the demolition, dismissed BJP governments in four States, and pledged to rebuild the mosque if the courts so directed. Over the following decades, the party consistently defended the constitutional principle that the dispute should be resolved through the judiciary while arguing that the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, should remain the main framework for all other religious sites. The Supreme Court’s unanimous verdict in November 2019 marked another turning point. Welcoming the verdict, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) said that all parties to the dispute should honour the judicial process and the rule of law.
The BriefWire