Asaduddin Owaisi, President of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen(AIMIM), and MP of Hyderabad constituency in Lok Sabha, has been invited to the ‘bhoomi poojan’ of the Ram Temple to be held at Ayodhya on August 5. Owaisi was invited to the event by Telangana BJP leader and Chief spokesperson Krishna Sagar Rao.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on August 5. The event will also be attended by 175 other dignitaries, including Union Ministers and Chief Ministers from across the country reported PTI. The construction of the Ram mandir will begin once the foundation stone laying ceremony is complete.

Owaisi, however, has not been shy of criticising the Ram Janmabhoomi movement at various points of his career. Owaisi took to Twitter on August 4 to admonish the Congress, over its willingness to support the construction of the temple, what he called the “extremist ideology of Hindutva.” He replied to a tweet from party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and added “Don’t be shy, please be proud of your party’s contributions to the movement that demolished our Babri Masjid.” 

Owaisi, in an interview with NDTV, on July 31 had stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi can’t participate in the bhoomi pujan in his official capacity. Owaisi had suggested that Narendra Modi should go to the event in his individual capacity and had added that no live telecast of his participation should be made. 

He had stated that “ Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took his oath as per the Constitution of India, he and his government cannot have any ‘Mazhab’(religion)” and added that the Republic of India ‘according to the constitution did not adhere to one particular religion.’

Owaisi also said that “If Prime Minister Modi visited Ayodhya in his official capacity on August 5 then the Prime Minister’s presence would acknowledge the fact that his belief(religion) is greater than the other beliefs (religions) practised in the country and would also indicate that the current government had an inclination to a particular belief(religion).”

Owaisi has earlier attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party and in 2009 had gone to the extent of opposing BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani by stating “at no cost we would like to see Mr Advani, who is an accused in Babri Masjid demolition case, becoming the prime minister of this great nation, thereby destroying the future of Muslims and weakening the secularism” according to a news report by Rediff Mail.com.