Two days prior to the grand Ram temple foundation laying ceremony at Ayodhya, Iqbal Ansari, a former litigant in the Ayodhya land dispute case who has been invited to attend the event, shared the first-look of the invitation. In view of the COVID pandemic, only five guests have been named in the invite, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi who will lay the foundation stone for the temple on August 5.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat will be the chief guest of the event. According to the saffron-themed invite, apart from Modi and Bhagwat, only three people—Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and chief priest Mahant Nritya Gopaldas—will be on the stage.
"Lord Ram wanted me to be there and hence, I have been invited. I am also a symbol of the Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb of this town," Ansari told THE WEEK. He has brought a Ramcharit Manas to gift to PM Modi on August 5.
Earlier in the day, former Union minister Uma Bharti had said that she would go for darshan of Lord Ram in Ayodhya after PM Modi and others leave the venue of the ground-breaking ceremony for Ram temple construction there, in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
The mosque in Ayodhya was demolished in December 1992 by 'kar sevaks' who claimed an ancient Ram temple had stood on the same site. In November last year, the Supreme Court paved the way for the construction of Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, and directed the Centre to allot an alternative five-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a new mosque at a "prominent" place in the holy town.
(With inputs from Puja Awasthi)