The All India Congress Committee has issued a statement on Wednesday, January 10 saying Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury have declined to attend the inauguration ceremony of the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya to be held on January 22nd, 2024. The statement says that the Ram temple is a political project of the BJP and the RSS, and the decision to inaugurate an incomplete temple was only for political gains. “Lord Ram is worshipped by millions in our country. Religion is a personal master. But the RSS/BJP have long made a political project of the temple in Ayodhya,” the statement said. 

The statement reads as follows:

 “Last month, the Congress President and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Shri Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson, Smt. Sonia Gandhi and the Leader of the Congress Party in the Lok Sabha Shri Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury received an invitation to attend the inauguration ceremony of the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya to be held on January 22nd, 2024.

Lord Ram is worshipped by millions in our country. Religion is a personal master. But the RSS/BJP have long made a political project of the temple in Ayodhya. The inauguration of the incomplete temple by the leaders of the BJP and the RSS has been obviously brought forward for electoral gain. While abiding by the 2019 Supreme Court judgment and honouring the sentiments of millions who revere Lord Ram, Shri Mallikarjun Kharge, Smt.

Sonia Gandhi and Shri Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury have respectfully declined the invitation to what is clearly an RSS/BJP event.”