Ayodhya Ram Mandir opening ceremony: Who's invited, who's left out, who is planning to give it a miss? Read here

livemint.com:

Ram temple in Ayodhya in 2024. It has become a political issue ahead of the Lok Sabha elections due next year. Invitations have been sent to religious leaders, actors, and politicians for the January 22 event in Ayodhya.

However, it's not yet clear who will attend from the opposition parties. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Chief Sharad Pawar expressed his disappointment after not being invited to the Ram Mandir inauguration ceremony that will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, other ministers and dignitaries. “I have not been invited to the inauguration of Ram Mandir, I have some places of faith, I go there.

The question of going to a religious place is personal. I am not saying that openly. BJP is doing politics or business in the name of Ram temple, I don't know," he said.

Similarly, Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor also stated that he has not been invited to the Ayodhya Ram temple inauguration event on January 22. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Tharoor said, “Was interrogated by the waiting press, wanting to know if I would be going to Ayodhya. I told them I hadn’t been invited but I saw religion as a personal attribute and not one for political (mis)use." “Temples are not the government’s business; unemployment, inflation, public welfare, and national security are.

But the media allows the temple to turn the focus away from those issues!" the Congress MP added. CPI (M) leader Brinda Karat also underlined her part's decision to skip the January 22 event, calling it the “politicization of a religious program". "No, we will not go.

We respect the religious beliefs... but they are connecting a religious program with politics. Using religion as a political weapon