On a day when Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Sonia Gandhi declined an invitation to attend the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) flayed the Opposition parties, saying they would lose “core Hindu support” if they choose to stay away from the event.

Reacting to allegations of the Opposition parties that the VHP and Bharatiya Janata Party are using the temple ceremony for political gains, Alok Kumar, international working president of the VHP, said, “Just imagine a situation where all INDIA [Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance] leaders had participated in it. Then what happens? If they boycott, people can draw their own conclusions.”

Sharing how VHP was in a dilemma over inviting leaders of Opposition parties for the temple inauguration, Mr. Kumar said, “There was a debate among us on whether to invite [Samajwadi Party chief] Akhilesh Yadav or the Congress for Ram Temple inauguration… They have always acted against Hindu causes and building of the Ram Temple. [SP founder] Mulayam Singh was responsible for the shooting on kar sewaks. We eventually decided that the generation that did all this has gone away. Mulayam, Narasimha Rao, Rajiv Gandhi…. the temple belongs to all of us. Let us have a fresh start.”

He added that the VHP had invited “all of the Opposition” and on a public platform, anyone who attends will be given “proper respect”. “Still if they choose not to come, then it’s open for the people to assume that they are doing it for their minority vote bank. So it is by their conduct that they have deprived themselves of the core Hindu support,” he further said.

Speaking with The Hindu on the mass mobilisation campaigns both in India and abroad ahead of the inauguration on January 22, Mr. Kumar said “50 crore Indians are being invited to visit the Ram temple”. “The VHP will be taking 1 lakh families which were associated with the temple movement to visit it for free in the next one month,” he added.

This story was originally published in thehindu.com. Read the full story here .