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Ram temple trust’s invite to PM Modi sparks political row
A day after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar criticised the timing of the bhoomi pujan, set for August 5, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh questioned the invitation extended to Modi to the ceremony by the Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.
The timing of the start of construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya — the country is in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic — and an invitation extended to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend it by the trust mandated to oversee the construction have sparked a political debate.
A day after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar criticised the timing of the bhoomi pujan, set for August 5, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh questioned the invitation extended to Modi to the ceremony by the Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, which was formed last year to construct the temple.
Singh said the Centre had appointed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders as members of the trust while overlooking religious figures such as the Shankaracharyas.
If the Prime Minister lays the foundation stone of the temple on August 5, all Shankaracharyas and Swami Ramnareshacharya ji of the Ramanandi sect should be invited to the function and made members of the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister said.
He supported Pawar, who has criticised the timing of the function. “You are right, Pawar saheb. Wish Modi-Shah had paid heed to what you said, then the situation of the country would have been different,” he tweeted in Hindi, referring to the Prime Minister and home minister Amit Shah.
Also read | Row over invitation to PM Modi for Ram Temple bhoomi pujan unwarranted: VHP
Pawar, whose party is part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi ruling coalition in Maharashtra, together with the Shiv Sena and Congress, said on Sunday that some people think building a temple in Ayodhya will help eradicate the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We are all thinking of how to fight the battle against Covid-19 but some people think that pandemic will be mitigated by building a temple. Our priority is to see how to improve the economy which has been affected due to lockdown,” he told a press conference in Mumbai.
His remarks exposed fissures within the Maha Vikas Aghadi. On Monday, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut claimed his party had “laid the road” to the Ram temple and removed the main roadblocks in its construction “not for politics but out of faith and for the cause of Hindutva”.
Raut said Maharashtra chief minister and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray always visits Ayodhya. “Uddhav Thackeray always goes to Ayodhya. He went when he was not chief minister and he went there after becoming chief minister too,” Raut said when asked whether the chief minister will visit Ayodhya on August 5 when Modi is likely to attend the bhoomi pujan.
“The ties of the Shiv Sena and Ayodhya are intact. It is not a political relationship. We do not go to Ayodhya for politics and did not go there for politics in the past too. Rather, it is the Shiv Sena which laid the road to the Ram temple,” he said.
Asked about Pawar’s remark, Raut said, “The fight against coronavirus is being fought by our doctors in white attire, whom we call devdoot (messenger of God) is only what I can say.”
The VHP, which has been at the forefront of the campaign to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya on a site Hindu groups believe marks the birthplace of the warrior-god, defended the invitation to Modi. It said the ceremony will be performed in line with all laid-down protocols that need to be followed to avoid transmission of the coronavirus.
Alok Kumar, the international working president of the VHP, said the controversy over the invitation to the PM, who is yet to confirm his presence, was unwarranted.
“There is no confirmation on who all will be present for the ceremony. The invitations have been sent out by the trust after deciding the names unanimously,” he said.
GRAND PLANS
After some changes are made to the existing model, the proposed Ram temple in Ayodhya would become the third largest Hindu temple in the world, said Mahant Kamal Nayan Das, designated successor of Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, chairman of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust.
Architects Nikhil Sompura and Ashish Sompura, the sons of the project’s chief architect Chandrakant Sompura, will prepare the new design.
“The architects have presented a rough sketch of the new layout before Mahant Nritya Gopal Das,” said Mahant Kamal Nayan Das.
“The temple’s height is likely to be 161 feet, width between 270 and 280 feet and length anything between 268 and 300 feet,” he added.
