Mani Shankar Aiyar says Ram temple inauguration ‘will prove costly’ for Modi

Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has criticised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intention to personally conduct the inauguration of at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

Aiyar also claimed that the absence of the four shankaracharyas, who refused to attend the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony, would prove costly for the Prime Minister.

Speaking at the Kerala Literature Festival, Aiyar siad that now it was beginning to show who is the “real Hindu” — one who knows the difference between ‘Hinduism’ and ‘Hindutva’.

“Modi’s attempt at being personally present and personally conducting the religious ceremony has received such strong disapproval from the four accepted seers of the Hindu religion, who constitute what you may call the pontiffs of the Hindu religion, that it is all going to turn back on him. It will bite back,” the senior Congress leader said.

The former Indian minister’s remarks came a day after Uttarakhand’s Jyotir Mutt head Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati announced that none of the four shankaracharyas would attend the event.

Notably, Congress’s top brass, including Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, have also declined the invitation to attend the Ram temple consecration ceremony, accusing the BJP of making it into a “political project” for electoral gains.

The decision attracted sharp criticism from the ruling BJP, who said that there is nothing new in the Congress’ stand as the opposition party and its allies have been “insulting” Hindus and Sanatan Dharma.