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Always wanted it, says Cong, that started it all

NEW DELHI:As the Supreme Court pronounced the Ayodhya judgment today, the Congress rushed to take a pro-temple stance with top leaders saying the party had always favoured a Ram Temple at the disputed site and worked towards it.

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Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 9

As the Supreme Court pronounced the Ayodhya judgment today, the Congress rushed to take a pro-temple stance with top leaders saying the party had always favoured a Ram Temple at the disputed site and worked towards it.

The Congress Working Committee chaired by party president Sonia Gandhi took a balanced line on the verdict saying “we respect it and appeal for harmony”.

Officially, however, the party was more outspoken about its urge to see a temple.

“Obviously the answer is yes,” Congress chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said when asked if the Congress favoured a Ram temple at the disputed site. Surjewala said the Congress always wanted a temple at the site while the BJP exploited the matter for electoral gains.

Parallel to that, the Congress sees the Ayodhya verdict as a chance to shed its minority tag and tell people that all momentous decisions on the Ayodhya issue were actually taken by Congress governments.

It started in 1986 with the then District and Sessions Judge of Faizabad KM Pandey ordering the Babri Masjid doors to be unlocked for Hindus on February 1, 1986. The move was seen as political executed through the judiciary. At the helm then was late PM Rajiv Gandhi whose advisers thought that appeasing the VHP, which in 1984 launched a movement for the Ram Temple, would help Gandhi undo the damage done by overturning the Shah Bano verdict of the apex court.

“That didn’t work,” admits a senior Congress leader. Rajiv Gandhi, however, continued with majority appeasement and later let VHP hold a “shila nyas” at the disputed site in 1989 hoping for electoral gains in the upcoming General Election. Rajiv Gandhi even proclaimed “establishment of Ram Rajya” at Faizabad from where he launched his 1989 LS poll campaign. Outcomes revealed the Ayodhya strategy had not worked for the Congress and in fact the move Congress initiated had been successfully leveraged by the BJP and partners for political gains.

The Congress was to later lose Muslim support in UP as the minority blamed it for not acting in time to prevent the December 1992 demolition of Babri mosque. Late PV Narasimha Rao was then the PM of a Congress government at the Centre.

Surjewala said on Saturday that the Congress always wanted what the SC has ordered and it was the BJP that constantly exploited Lord Rama, a “symbol of love and sacrifice”.

That said, party leaders admit privately that a saga the Congress started in 1986 became the top political tool in the hands of BJP and served its “polarising agenda well.”

No wonder the CWC reaction to the verdict was more muted.

“The Indian National Congress respects the verdict of the Supreme Court in the Ayodhya case. We appeal to all the parties concerned and to all communities to abide by the secular values and spirit of fraternity enshrined in our Constitution and to maintain peace and harmony. It is the responsibility of each one of us to reaffirm our tradition of mutual respect and unity among all that has defined our society through the ages,” the statement said. 


Verdict doesn’t present a cause for credit seeking by any individual, group or party. Judgment will ensure BJP no longer gets to exploit matters of faith for poll gains.— Randeep Surjewala, Cong spokesman 

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