Gujarat Cong in Catch-22 over Ram Temple event as GPCC chief invokes Shankaracharyas for rain check

Senior Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia’s statement criticising his party for taking a “political decision” to skip the Ram Temple inauguration in Ayodhya on January 22 has caused embarrassment for the party, which has been struggling in state politics for many years.

A senior MLA from Porbandar, Modhwadia had been a former Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president as well as the Leader of the Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly.

Modhwadia criticised the Congress in a X post on January 10, tagging the Congress statement issued by AICC general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh earlier that day. The Congress announced that party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury have “respectfully declined” the invitation to attend the Ayodhya event. The Congress charged that the Ram Temple has been turned into a “political project” by the BJP and the RSS and that the consecration event has been brought forward for “electoral gain” in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls.

GPCC president and Rajya Sabha MP Shaktisinh Gohil told The Indian Express that it was “an expression of his (Modhwadia’s) opinion”, calling it an example of the party’s “internal democracy”.

Gohil has also issued a statement in support of the Shankaracharyas’ decision not to attend the Ram Temple inauguration, claiming that it was in alignment with what the Congress felt about the event.

In a video posted on social media Friday, Gohil said that as a Hindu, he held the word of the Shankaracharyas supreme, and stood by their decision to not attend the pran prathistha (consecration) of a temple that was “incomplete”. All the four Shankaracharyas have reportedly decided to give the Ayodhya event a