PM to attend Ram Temple inauguration; Muslim leaders demand foundation stone laying for mosque
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Ayodhya: As the construction of the Ram Temple is nearing completion, efforts are on to make it a landmark event and let it help the BJP and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi make gains in the electoral front in the general elections of 2024. To this end, no effort is spared to do it with the right quantum of fanfare.
Probably with that end in mind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to attend the 'Pran Pratishtha' ceremony at Ayodhya's Ram Temple on January 22, 2024.
On Wednesday, the temple trust formally extended an invitation for the ceremony to the Prime minister in Delhi.
General Secretary of the Sri Ram Janambhoomi Trust, Champat Rai, officially confirmed the date of January 22, 2024, for the installation of the idol of Lord Ram in the 'Garbhagriha' (sanctum sanctorum) of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.
Lord Ram's idol will be placed inside the temple on this day.
Significantly enough, the invitation to Prime Minister Modi was issued one day after Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat, made an announcement in his Vijayadashami message confirming the installation of Lord Ram's idol at the Ayodhya temple on January 22. He also urged people to arrange events at temples throughout the country to commemorate this significant occasion.
On the other hand, the Muslim side who were to get a mosque constructed in parallel to the Ram Temple construction as per the Supreme Court verdict, have, in the run up to the event and the Prime Minister's visit to Ayodhya, requested the Prime Minister to also lay the foundation stone of the new Babri Masjid.
Laying the foundation would only form the start of a construction whereas the Hindu petitioners in the Supreme Court who claimed a right to build a Ram temple, and despite the Supreme court calling the act of demolition of Babri masjid on Dec 6, 1992 'an egregious violation of the rule of law', see the temple coming up within a few years from the verdict.
In the 2019 landmark Supreme Court ruling in the Ayodhya land dispute, the judgment said that the Ram Mandir would be constructed at the 2.77 acres disputed site and Muslims would be given an alternate 5-acre land in Dhannipur for the construction of Babri Masjid.
While 'Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra' was formed for the construction of the temple, the 'Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation' was formed to oversee the mosque's construction.
Iqbal Ansari, who was one of the main petitioners in the Babri Masjid-Ram temple dispute, held members of the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation responsible for the delay in the mosque's construction.
Expressing displeasure with the pace of the mosque's construction, he demanded that the trustees of the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation be changed. While Lord Ram's idol is to be placed in the temple in January, the foundation stone of the mosque is yet to be laid.
"Our Prime Minister is coming to Ayodhya on an auspicious occasion. We request him to start the work on the mosque also. This is our heartfelt wish," said Mohammad Ismail Ansari, President, Indian Muslim League.
Nazmul Hasan Ghani, Acting State President, Indian Muslim League, requested Prime Minister Modi to bring along Imam Ahmed Bukhari of Jama Masjid and Dr Ilyasi, President of the All India Imam Organization, and lay the foundation stone of the Dhannipur mosque.
(With inputs from IANS)
