STATE TIMES NEWS
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday asked his Cabinet colleagues to celebrate the Ayodhya Ram temple consecration ceremony on January 22 like Diwali by lighting up diyas at their homes and also feed the poor, sources said.
He made these remarks at the Union Cabinet meeting amid a nationwide religious fervour in the run-up to the ceremony which he will be attending.
Cabinet ministers, sources said, have also been urged to visit the temple along with devotees from their respective states after January 22.
With the exercise by Hindutva organisations to mobilise the masses ahead of the ceremony drawing positive response, the BJP-led NDA believes the event will add to the popular appeal for the temple and may help it in the Lok Sabha elections expected in April-May.
The BJP has already mobilised its members across the country to facilitate people’s visit to Ayodhya and stay in the holy town after the ceremony. Meanwhile, new idol of Lord Ram was placed Thursday afternoon in the sanctum sanctorum of Ayodhya’s Ram Janmabhoomi temple, ahead of the consecration ceremony set to take place on January 22.
The 51-inch Ram Lalla idol, sculpted by Mysuru-based sculptor Arun Yogiraj, was brought to the temple the previous night.
On Thursday afternoon, it was placed in the grabha griha, Arun Dixit, a priest associated with the consecration ceremony, told PTI.
This was done amid the chanting of prayers, according to the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the January 22 ‘pran pratishtha’ ceremony at the temple, which is expected to be opened to the public the next day.
Rituals leading up the consecration ceremony have already begun at the temple, constructed at what many devout believe marks the spot where Lord Ram was born.
In 1992, kar sevaks demolished the Babri Masjid that stood there.
A historic Supreme Court judgment in 2019 on the temple-mosque dispute paved the way for the construction of the temple.