"Ultimately We All Are Hindus": DK Shivakumar On Ram Temple Celebrations (image: instagram.com/dkshivakumar_official/)

Backing Karnataka government”s decision to celebrate the inauguration ceremony of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Deputy Chief Minister of the state DK Shivakumar on Monday said that “ultimately we all are Hindus”. Currently in Kerala, the senior Congress leader arrived at Thiruvananthapuram to attend the Ramachandran Foundation award ceremony.

In response to a reporter”s inquiry about why the Congress-ruled Karnataka government is celebrating the Ram Temple inauguration ceremony, DK Shivakumar said: “See, ultimately we all are Hindus.” When reporters then asked why the Congress High Command had not decided to join in the ceremony, he responded that the BJP-ruled centre was adopting a pick-and-choose method in determining who should be at the event.

Continuing further, DK Shivakumar said: “They (BJP) are picking and choosing leaders. There are so many leaders and chief ministers in the country. It is not a private property. It is public property. Every religion and symbol does not belong to any individual”.

He then said that Karnataka government respects the sentiments of all people and it has departments for the minorities, SC/STs, OBCs and Hindu religion.

The Ram Temple inauguration ceremony, or the idol consecration ceremony will take place in Uttar Pradesh”s Ayodhya on January 22. The official sources report that invitation card for the ceremony will be “hand-delivered to all the guests” via representatives of the temple trust and a large number of volunteers. Some of the guests have already received the invitation card. Congress Chief Mallikarjun Kharge, senior party leader Sonia Gandhi, the party”s leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, and Former prime ministers Manmohan Singh and HD Deve Gowda are some of the politicians received the invitations.

Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirath Kshetra Trust is planning to invite over 7,000 people for the event. The trust has also invited close 4,000 seers from across the country and 50 guests from abroad. The noted invitees also include cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli, actors Rajinikanth, and Amitabh Bachchan, and businesspeople like Ratan Tata, and Mukesh Ambani.

(With inputs from PTI)