Shashi Tharoor on Congress boycotting the temple opening: “Won’t surrender my Ram to BJP” | Exclusive

Congressman Shashi Tharoor addressed the party’s leaders’ absence at the Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha on Sunday, stating that this did not imply that they were “relinquishing” the god to the BJP.

“As someone who has been praying to Ram from his childhood onwards, I’m not going to surrender my Ram to the BJP,” Tharoor said in an exclusive interview with India Today TV. BJP doesn’t seem to own any copyright to Ram or any other celestial manifestation, in my opinion.

Senior Congressmen had said that they would not be attending the consecration ceremony since it was a “RSS/BJP event,” including party chairman Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

I go to temples to pray, therefore it probably has nothing to do with politics,” Shashi Tharoor remarked, adding that he would decide when to attend. I don’t attend to political events.

He continued, saying that the Congress had never made any disparaging remarks about Lord Ram or Hinduism and had merely claimed that the consecration ritual had been “politicized.” He went on to say that attending the function would have amounted to “complicity in the political exercise of the ruling party.”

On January 22, Tharoor said, “You have the Prime Minister conducting the Pran Pratishtha who is no purohit.”

“Suddenly for them to say that because we didn’t come we are anti-Hindu is absurd,” he remarked in response to the party’s detractors’ “anti-Hindu” accusations. India is home to 80% Hindus. Additionally, 80% of Congress is Hindu.

We have no reason at all to accept the idea that taking part in an activity led by the Prime Minister and sponsored by the BJP defines Hinduism. That isn’t necessarily Hinduism, in my opinion.

ON BLOC’S PM FACE IN INDIA
The Congress MP said that the alliance places more emphasis on ideas than persons when questioned about the absence of a prime ministerial candidate for the INDIA group.

“In a parliamentary system, a party is selected. You are selecting a group of rules. The residents of Varanasi are the only ones eligible to vote for Mr. Modi. Everywhere else, you will have a candidate of your own to run for Parliamentary representation.

That is how the system works. Thus, let me simply state that, in general, Shashi Tharoor remarked, “We are going to try and focus on the issues and not on personalities.”

He continued by saying that the role may be filled by a number of well-known INDIA bloc leaders and that the choice would be made after the Lok Sabha elections.

Despite West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s declaration that the TMC will contest the elections alone and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s departure, Shashi Tharoor denied that the INDIA alliance is disintegrating.

“I believe that it was stated from the beginning that state-by-state modifications to seats would only be made. In our nation, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy. The Congress leader said, “Reality in Bengal differs from reality in Bihar.

He went on to say that although there could be two or three states where no consensus exists, there isn’t much disagreement generally.

“At the end of the day, whoever wins from the opposition side is bound to support the INDI Alliance government,” said Tharoor.