'Will regret it if they don't go': BJP reacts to Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge rejecting Ram Mandir invitation

livemint.com:

Congress of being stuck in its "rhetoric", Union minister and BJP leader Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday said the party (Congress) will regret its decision to not attend the consecration ceremony of Shri Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on January 22. The BJP leader was reacting after senior Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury turned down the invitation saying the BJP and the RSS have made the temple its political project. "They are stuck in their rhetoric...Why take them seriously? They will regret it if they don't go," said Puri.

Reacting to the decision of senior Congress leaders not to attend the pranpratishtha ceremony, Union Minister Smriti Irani said “Congress party's anti-Lord Ram face is before the nation." "Congress party's anti-Lord Ram face is before the nation. It is no surprise that under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, the party that had filed an affidavit before the court that Lord Ram is a fictional character, its leadership declined the invitation to the 'pranpratishtha' of Ram Temple...Under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and Congress, INDI Alliance has insulted Sanatan Dharma again and again. Now, the declining of the invitation to the 'pranpratishtha' by leaders of the INDI Alliance reflects their anti-Sanatan mindset," Irani said.

Slamming the decision of Congress leaders, BJP national spokesperson Nalin Kohli said the decision wasn't surprising as they had denied Lord Ram's existence. "...It should come as no surprise. The Congress party, over the last few decades, really took no steps to see that there should be a temple at Ayodhya.