Boycotting Ram Temple consecration ceremony on political grounds is irreverence towards God: NSS

Hours after top Congress leaders ''respectfully declined'' the invitation to attend the Ram Temple consecration ceremony, Kerala's influential Nair Service Society on Wednesday said boycotting the event on political grounds was ''irreverence towards God''.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, former party president Sonia Gandhi and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury while declining the invitation, accused the BJP of making it into a ''political project'' for electoral gains and asserted that religion was a ''personal matter''.

Congress party general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the inauguration of the ''incomplete temple'' by the leaders of the BJP and the RSS has been brought forward for electoral gain.

In a veiled criticism of the Congress stand, the NSS, in a statement, said it was the duty of every believer to take part, if possible, in the consecration ceremony being held at Ayodhya on January 22.

There is no need to look at caste or religion for participating in the event, it said.

''Boycotting that initiative in the name of politics is irreverence towards God. If any organisation or political party is opposing it, it is only for their selfish and political gains,'' the statement issued by NSS general secretary G Sukumaran Nair said.

It further said that it was not adopting this stance for any political motives or to support a specific political party, as it has been cooperating with the construction of the Ram Temple right from the start in the name of God.

The Supreme Court had in a historic verdict in 2019 backed the construction of the Ram temple by a government trust at the disputed site in Ayodhya and ruled that an alternative five-acre plot must be found for a mosque in the town considered holy by Hindus.

As a result, Ayodhya is getting decked up for the 'pran pratishtha' at the grand Ram temple being built there.

The BJP and the RSS and affiliate Hindutva organisations like the Vishva Hindu Parishad have launched a nationwide mass connect programme in the run-up to the ceremony, urging people to visit the holy place after the programme.

The BJP has also asked all its state units to start a campaign from January 14 to ensure the cleanliness of temples and the surroundings and exhort people to join the January 22 event by offering prayers at temples in their respective neighbourhoods.

The Ram temple complex, built in the traditional Nagara style, will be 380 feet in length (east-west direction), 250 feet in width and 161 feet in height.

Each floor of the temple will be 20 feet high and have a total of 392 pillars and 44 gates.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)