'Don't need a middleman': Congress attacks PM amid Ram mandir invite row

Congress leader Pawan Khera questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi government's decision to inaugurate Ram temple in a rush

Congress leader Pawan Khera on Friday addressed the controversy that erupted after the party's senior leaders - Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury- declined the invitation to Ram mandir's 'Pran Pratishtha' ceremony on January 22.

"It is not acceptable that people of a political party are sitting as middlemen between me and my God. A political group is acting like a thekedar [contractor]," Pawan Khera said, slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for sending invites for the ceremony.
 

He also questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government's decision to inaugurate the Ram temple in a rush, citing that the four Shankaracharya (pontiffs of major Hindu shrines) have raised their reservation that the Pran Pratishtha ceremony of an incomplete temple should not be done.

"There is a system and set of rituals to perform Pran Pratishtha. If this event is religious, then is it happening under the guidance of the Shankaracharya of the four peeths? All four Shankaracharya have said clearly that the Pran Pratishtha of an incomplete temple cannot be done," the Congress leader said.

The Shankaracharya are the heads of the four major shrines called 'peeths' situated in Joshimath in Uttarakhand, Dwarka in Gujarat, Puri in Odisha and Sringeri in Karnataka.

Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Jyotish peeth in Uttarakhand confirmed that all four Shankaracharyas will not attend the January 22 inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya as it is being held in violation of the rules of Sanatan Dharma.

He further asserted that it is a bad idea to inaugurate an incomplete temple and install the idol of the God there. "Maybe they [those organising the programme] will call us anti-Modi. We are not anti-Modi, but at the same time, we also can't go against our Dharma Shastra," Avimukteshwaranand added.