‘Rajiv Gandhi opened locks at Babri site’: Kamal Nath contests BJP claims on Ram temple

Seen as the Congress’s de facto CM face, the veteran leader and nine-time MP also said that the party would keep its promise of resuming the construction of a Sita Mata temple in Sri Lanka. “It is the duty of every citizen to work for culture and faith. We had begun the process of construction of a Mata Sita temple in Sri Lanka in our previous government. The Shivraj government stopped the process… All this has been done by due process in the past.”

Asked about the soft Hindutva tag attached to him, particularly over his projection of himself as a Hanuman devotee, Kamal Nath said: “I do not comment on terminology like Hindutva, soft Hindutva and super Hindutva. For us, religious faith is a matter of conduct and thought, not propaganda. Fifteen years ago, I got a 101-feet-tall Hanuman statue installed in Chhindwara… The Congress allocated Rs 455 crore for a grand Mahakal and Omkareshwar temples.”

The Ayodhya issue has been a politically uncomfortable topic for the Congress, which was in power at the Centre when the Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992. Then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao’s failure to protect the structure was seen by many as deliberate.

Before that, in 1986, the Rajiv Gandhi government had allowed the opening of the locks of the Babri Masjid, in what was seen as a balancing outreach towards Hindus, after the Centre had passed a law overturning the Shah Bano verdict, to appease many in the Muslim community. Three years later, as the BJP stepped up its Ram temple campaign, the Rajiv government had permitted shilanyas at the Babri site.

Rajiv then began his campaign for the 1991 Lok Sabha elections from Ayodhya, promising to usher in “Ram Rajya”. The party’s manifesto said it was for construction of a temple at the dispute site, without damage to the mosque.

After the 1992 demolition of the mosque led to widespread violence and deaths, the Congress tried to contain the damage. The Rao government, which came to power after the 1991 elections, enacted a law laying down that the religious character of a place of worship shall continue to be what it was on August 15, 1947. However, in another balancing act, it kept the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid complex out of the ambit of the law.

With the Supreme Court ruling in favour of the temple side in the dispute, the Congress said in November 2019 that it respects the judgment and again declared it was in favour of construction of a Ram Temple. However, it made no mention of the Babri Masjid, the rebuilding of which Rao had publicly committed to in 1993.

In the last few years, the Congress has been openly flirting with political Hinduism. Its government in Chhattisgarh, for instance, has developed a tourism circuit, ‘Ram Van Gaman Paryatan Paripath’, along the route that Ram is believed to have traversed in Chhattisgarh during exile.

In 2020, a day before the bhoomi pujan for the Ram temple in Ayodhya, Kamal Nath had organsised a Hanuman Chalisa at his home, and announced that he would send 11 silver bricks for the structure.

Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have tried to engage with Hinduism by invoking the “inclusive, all-encompassing nature” of Ram.