THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Congress leader K Muraleedharan said: “Reading Ramayana is a personal belief. Why drag the party and politics into it? Congress has believers of different religions and atheists as its members. And the party accommodates everyone.”
“We have been criticising the BJP for using the photograph of Lord Rama to garner votes. What difference does Congress and the BJP have if we start promoting Ramayana to secure a few votes,” he added.
Senior leader and former minister Pandalam Sudhakaran said the programme would have given the party a negative image among voters. “Congress is a secular party which has all kinds of people in its ranks. Such a political party should not take up Ramayana observance programme for the sake of a few votes.”
Stung by the criticism from within the party, Vichar Vibhag called off the programme. “We dropped the programme as there was criticism from party senior leaders and we don’t want to make this a controversy,”said Nedumudi Harikumar, state convenor of Vichar Vibhag.