A day after Dalit Spiritual leader Mahamandelshwar Kanhaiya Prabhunandan Giri questioned his exclusion from the Ayodhya Ram Temple groundbreaking ceremony, BSP president Mayawati today said an invitation would have been in keeping with the "Constitutional intention of setting up a casteless society".
The groundbreaking ceremony for the temple is slated for August 5. The event, organised by Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust, is expected to be attended by 200 priests and other dignitaries, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Though the BSP supremo highlighted the exclusion in a series of tweets, she went on to advice the people from this oppressed section of the society to ignore the alleged snub to the Dalit spiritual leader and firmly walk on the path shown by Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, the father of the Dalit-Buddhist movement who wrote the Constitution of India.
"Instead of getting into all this, the Dalit community, which has been suffering neglect, contempt and injustice, should focus more on their labour and deeds for their salvation and in this case too they need to follow the path shown by Bhimrao Ambedkar," the former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh tweeted.
Prime Minister Modi had in February announced in Lok Sabha the formation of a trust to construct Ram temple in Ayodhya, following the Supreme Court verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case in November last year.
The Supreme Court's November 9 verdict paved the way for the construction of a Ram temple by a Trust at the disputed site in Ayodhya, and directed the Centre to allot an alternative 5-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a new mosque at a "prominent" place in the holy town in Uttar Pradesh.
