Sonia showed lack of faith in Lord Ram by declining temple invite: Smriti Irani

Union minister Smriti Irani on Wednesday criticised former Congress president Sonia Gandhi for turning down the invitation to attend the Ram Temple consecration ceremony, claiming that it demonstrated her lack of faith in Lord Ram.Irani made the remark at the Bihar BJP headquarters here, while concluding her address during a media workshop held by the party, in a bid to spruce up its communication network ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.I have been told that Sonia Gandhi has turned down the invitation for the January 22 function in Ayodhya.

Union minister Smriti Irani on Wednesday criticised former Congress president Sonia Gandhi for turning down the invitation to attend the Ram Temple consecration ceremony, claiming that it demonstrated her ''lack of faith in Lord Ram''.

Irani made the remark at the Bihar BJP headquarters here, while concluding her address during a ''media workshop'' held by the party, in a bid to spruce up its communication network ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

''I have been told that Sonia Gandhi has turned down the invitation for the January 22 function (in Ayodhya). Could we expect anything different from her?” the Union Minister for Minority Affairs said.

“… But, I must say that Sonia Gandhi has shown that she has no faith in Lord Ram,” Irani said.

As per a Congress statement, Gandhi, party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and its leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury have ''respectfully declined'' the invitation, asserting that religion was a ''personal matter''.

''... 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,'' it said. Irani added that “we are fortunate to have, in Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a leader who is equally devoted to the temple of democracy and the temple of Ram''. Later, talking to reporters, Irani said ''it is hardly surprising that Congress leaders have not accepted the invitation. After all, when Sonia Gandhi headed the party and it was in power at the Centre, affidavits were filed in the court claiming that Lord Ram did not exist''.

Asked whether invitations would be extended to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD president Lalu Prasad, both of whom are Congress allies, she replied: ''I can only say that under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, the Congress has been repeatedly guilty of denigrating ‘Sanatana Dharma’. And the party is now joined by others in the INDIA alliance''.

The Union minister spoke for nearly half an hour at the party workshop and, in her address, called the INDIA coalition an ''unholy alliance'' for which Modi was a ''dukhti rag” (raw nerve). Without mentioning Nitish Kumar or Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav by name, she said the alliance remains in news for its “internal bickering”. “Every day, a new face is talked about, sending ripples across Bihar where somebody eyes the PM's chair while another wants to become the CM,'' she said.

Irani told the party workers that the BJP, which was ''formed not very long ago'', was on the cusp of making history in the Lok Sabha polls when victory for a third consecutive term will ''put Modi in the list of longest-serving prime ministers''. Irani, who also holds the Women and Child Development portfolio in the Union cabinet, showered encomiums on Modi for his thrust on building toilets that helped millions of females in rural areas, ''who faced the humiliation of relieving themselves in the open, often waiting till late in the evening''. Speaking about the Ujjwala Yojana, she said, ''It was not until Modi, born to a poor mother, assumed power that this historic step was taken, which allowed women to work in their kitchens without smoke hurting their eyes''. Irani, who is regarded as a ‘giant killer’ in political circles since the parliamentary polls of 2019 when she wrested the Amethi Lok Sabha seat from Congress’ Rahul Gandhi, alleged that her constituency ''reeked of neglect by political dynasts'' and things began to look up ''only since 2014, when Modi first became the PM''.

She also asserted that the central government has never been partisan against those “who do not vote for us”.