IUML expresses disagreement over Priyanka Gandhi’s Ram temple statement
Political analysts said the IUML, which boasts 18 MLAs in the Kerala assembly against the Congress’ 21, may also have found comfort in Rahul Gandhi’s statement on Wednesday. In a tweet, Rahul, who sealed the Wayanad seat in the last Lok Sabha elections with the backing of the League, said: ‘Ram is love, he can never appear in hatred. Ram is compassionate, he can never appear in cruelty. Ram is justice, he can never appear in injustice.”
Sebastian Paul, a political observer and former MP, said there is nothing significant in the IUML resolution.“This (Priyanka’s statement) is not going to trigger any political realignment in Kerala. IUML got worried about its voters’ sentiment after seeing the Hindutva stance of Congress in northern states. The IUML move to pass the resolution can be seen only as one to take its Muslim voters into confidence,” he said.
Added writer-orator M N Karassery: “Congress has taken a soft Hindutva stand earlier as well. However, the IUML hasn’t taken a strong stand against it so far. This time too, the IUML might let the stance of Priyanka and other Congress leaders go in a similar manner.”
While there was no official reaction from the Congress in Kerala, party leader and former minister Pandalam Sudhakaran highlighted the secular credentials of the IUML and said his party would never do anything to break the trust.
“When the nation burned after the Babri Masjid demolition, it was then IUML leader Panakkad Mohammedali Shihab Thangal who had ensured not a stone was thrown in Kerala. We are forever grateful to him and the IUML and will never do anything to dilute our secular credentials,” Sudhakaran told here.
The president of prominent Sunni group Samastha Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulama, Syed Mohammed Jifri Muthukoya Thangal, said he hoped the Congress would not retract from its secular values.
“We hope that secular parties including the Congress would not go back from their secular position,” he said in a statement.
