The date for the construction of the Ram temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya will be discussed on Saturday as members of the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust will meet in the temple town.
Nripendra Mishra, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s former principal secretary and also the chairperson of the committee for the construction of the temple, will be present at the meeting.
“He will come with a date that has been approved by the Prime Minister,” news agency ANI reported quoting an unnamed source.
Mishra reached Ayodhya on Thursday along with KK Sharma, the trust’s security adviser and the Border Security Forces’ (BSF’s) former director general, and met various members.
Reports have said the construction of the Ram Temple is likely to begin in August after it was stopped amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The trust’s president Nritya Gopal Das has sent a letter to Prime Minister Modi to invite him to conduct the ‘Bhumi Pujan’ of the Ram Mandir on the occasion of its foundation laying ceremony, his spokesperson Mahant Kamal Nayan Das has said.
Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat will be present on the occasion of the beginning of temple construction.
The construction of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya has been defining issue for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and was on its election manifesto for more than two decades.
The Ram Janmabhoomi Trust was formed by the central government after the Supreme Court’s directive on November 9 last year to facilitate the construction of a temple.
While the construction ceremony was supposed to be celebrated with many Union ministers, chief ministers and other important dignitaries in attendance, the list of attendees is likely to have only PM Modi, Bhagwat, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, few ministers and MPs from the region because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The members of temple trust said while the programme of ‘Shilanyas’ has been done at ‘Singh Dwara’, it was not a proper ceremony.
“Bhoomi pujan will be done at the garbha griha to begin the temple construction. This is the formal beginning of the temple construction for which invites have been sent out,” ANI quoted another source as saying.
Ved Prakash Gupta, the BJP legislator in Ayodhya, said efforts are on to bring the Prime Minister to Ayodhya to inaugurate the construction of Ram Mandir.
Gupta said if the Prime Minister comes to Ayodhya, its destiny will change and the dream of making Ayodhya like the Vatican City will come true.
