"Leadership keeping devotees away" Anurag Thakur on Congress' Nirmal Khatri's decision to participate in Pran Pratishtha

New Delhi [India], January 17 : After former UP Congress Chief Nirmal Khatri's acceptance of an invite to the Pran Pratishta program, Union Minister Anurag Thakur on Wednesday questioned the Congress leadership for keep devotees in the party away from Lord Ram.
"When they do injustice in their party and keep Ram devotees away from Ram, then how would Ram devotees listen to them? This is why nobody is listening to him (Rahul Gandhi) in Congress," Anurag Thakur said while talking to the reporters.
Days after top leaders in Congress turned down the invitation to attend the Ram Mandir event in Ayodhya, Nirmal Khatri said that he has accepted the invitation for the January 22 event, saying that being a Ram Bhakt (devotee of Lord Ram) is not a sin.
"In connection with the program of Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha on 22nd in Ayodhya, I will participate in this program in honour of the personal invitation of respected Champat Rai ji, General Secretary of Ram Janmabhoomi Trust," Khatri said in a post on 'X'.
Anurag Thakur alleged that by indulging in appeasement politics, Congress and its alliance partners have insulted Hinduism.
"They did not believe in Lord Ram in the past nor do they today. They said that Lord Ram is imaginary. They used to oppose the Ram Temple. Congress and its alliance partners, through their lawyers, tried to defeat the petitions of Ram devotees in court," he said.
Meanwhile, Khatri said that even the Uttar Pradesh Congress unit has asked its workers to visit the Ayodhya temple and take a dip in the Saryu river to mark the Pran Pratishtha event.
"There is no instruction from the Congress Party that no Congressman should participate in this program on 22nd. Only our top leaders have expressed their inability to attend the event on 22nd. Hence I accept the invitation on 22nd and will participate in it. And now the state Congress unit has also inspired the state Congress unit to accept the invitation of 22nd by doing Ayodhya Yatra and take a dip in Saryu at all costs," Khatri said.
The former Uttar Pradesh Congress chief said that the fight against the ideology of any party or organization can be done only by strengthening its organization on an ideological basis and not by any reaction.
"We will not be able to compete with our opponent in the battle of events. Only by strengthening our organization on an ideological basis will we be able to fight our opponent, to which no attention is being paid," he complained.
Khatri urged his party colleagues to work on strengthening the party on ideological grounds, which will help influence the public mind.
The former Uttar Pradesh Congress chief said that he is against the "hypocrisy of religion" and is against the tactics of taking political benefits with the help of religion.
Earlier on Tuesday, while speaking at the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Nagaland, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that RSS and the BJP have made the January 22 function at Ram Temple in Ayodhya "a completely political Narendra Modi function" and that it is difficult for Congress leaders "to go to a political function that is designed around the Prime Minister of India and around the RSS.".