Is the ‘Ram Mandir Inauguration’ ceremony at this time aims political advantage? Such questions are put up regularly by the opposition. A senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala termed the Pran Pratishtha ceremony in Ayodhya as an “event management work” of the BJP aimed at political advantage in the coming general election.
He claims that BJP is focusing on the event management work ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. He said, “Only event management work is going on for the Lok Sabha elections and people understand this. What more proof do you need than that four Shankaracharyas have refused to attend the Pran Pratishtha ceremony? Everyone knows that this is being done to gain political advantage.”
Well, the opposition claimed that the Shankaracharyas have decided against attending the January 22 event after objecting to the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ ceremony at an ‘incomplete temple’.
The shankaracharyas are the heads of the four Hindu mathas (monasteries) — in Dwarka (Gujarat), Joshimath (Uttarakhand), Puri (Odisha), and Sringeri (Karnataka) — that are believed to have been founded by the eighth-century religious scholar and philosopher Adi Shankara.
“The temple is not completed yet, and the four Shankaracharyas are not attending the ceremony, saying that this is a political program. The Prime Minister is consecrating it.Is this not politics?” Chennithala said.
However the leading opposition members including Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had “respectfully” declined the invitation extended by Ram Janmabhoomi Temple Trust to attend the ‘Pran Prathista’ ceremony. They allege that the auspicious occasion has been turned down to politics by BJP and RSS.
Meanwhile the government and the management of the State, Uttar Pradesh is gearing up to organize the grand ceremony in Ayodhya. The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi will attend the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. An idol of Ram Lalla will be enthroned in the sanctum sanctorum of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22.