Ayodhya decked up for Ram Temple ceremony

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend a ground-breaking ceremony of a temple tot Lord Ram in Ayodhya today. Fifty VIPs including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will attend the grand event. This meets a long political promise that is central to the ruling BJP’s ideology. Ayodhya town was lit up in purple and green last evening.

A 40-kg silver brick symbolising the start of the construction is at the heart of today’s ceremonies. Images released showed the proposed temple will be a grand three-storey stone structure. The temple will be 161 feet tall and almost double the size of what was originally planned.

The guest list for the grand event has been severely cut down due to coronavirus.

BJP senior leader LK Advani, who led the movement for Ayodhya temple will attend the ceremony virtually. “Destiny made me perform a pivotal duty in the form of Ram Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya in 1990 which helped galvanise aspirations, energies and passions of its countless participants,” he said.

Last year, the Supreme Court gave a go-ahead for a temple to be built by a specially appointed trust. The Centre was asked to give Muslims land elsewhere in Ayodhya for a mosque.

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