Hyderabad: Slamming the Congress for declining the invitation to attend the consecration of Ram temple in Ayodhya, Union Minister G Kishan Reddy on Thursday alleged that the grand old party behaved with an anti-Hindu attitude since the days of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Nehru was opposed to the participation of the then President Rajendra Prasad in the ‘Pran Pratishta’ of Somnath temple, Reddy, claimed, speaking to reporters here.
The Sri Ram Teertha Kshetra Trust has sent invites, beyond politics, to all political parties in the country and to all sections of society and prominent persons with the view that the event is not confined to one religion, Reddy, president of Telangana BJP, said.
At a time when a spiritual atmosphere is growing in the country day by day, the Congress is behaving with a sense of insecurity and pseudo-secularism, he charged.
On Wednesday, the Congress announced that Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, and its leader in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, have declined the invitation to attend the ceremony.
The opposition party also claimed that the BJP and the RSS had turned the event into a “political project” for electoral gain.
The Telangana BJP president said the Congress had once again shown its anti-Hindu attitude for the sake of vote bank and appeasement politics by “opposing the sacred event” and declining the invitation.
The BJP and RSS did not exist when struggles were made in history against the destruction of Lord Ram temple at Ayodhya, he said.
The consecration of Ram temple now is not a political event or even a Hindutva event, he said.
“The Congress needs to understand that Ayodhya means a reflection of the Indian soul,” he said.
The grand old party is in the habit of “boycotting”, he claimed, saying that it boycotted G-20 meetings, parliament sessions and the function when Bharat Ratna was conferred on former President Pranab Mukherjee.
Alleging that Congress is not functioning in a way of respecting the country’s culture and the Hindus, Reddy said the party termed GST as ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’ and its leader Rahul Gandhi speaks in a way of hurting the country’s prestige on foreign soil.
“The Congress which imported leadership from foreign countries is speaking against India and its traditions,” he said.
Saying that Hindutva does not concern one religion but a way of national life, Reddy said the state ministers in the alliance of Congress were speaking against ‘Sanatan Dharma’.
“The then Prime Minister Nehru ji had written many letters to the then President Rajendra Prasad that he should not go, when Rajendra Prasad ji was going to attend idol ‘Pran Pratishta’ in 1951 after the construction of Somnath temple which was destroyed by foreigners,” he said.
Nehru had written to Prasad saying that the latter should not attend the revival of a Hindu temple as the country is secular, he claimed.
“The Congress, which has done family politics from Nehru till today, behaved with an anti-Hindu attitude,” he said.
Reddy alleged that a police case was registered in Hyderabad when sacred ‘akshatas’ from Ayodhya were being distributed to people.
This is the first such case in India and the ruling Congress party’s policy in Telangana to appease AIMIM is clear, he charged.
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