Ahead of Lok Sabha elections, competitive ceremonies around faith on January 22

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, January 17

The stage is set for competitive ceremonies around faith as the ruling BJP and its rivals take varied ideological positions ahead of the 18th General Election this year.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the inauguration of Ram Mandir on January 22 and continue his ongoing campaign to visit Ram temples across states, Opposition stalwarts will skip the Ayodhya ceremony but will pay obeisance to local deities and hold parallel religious campaigns to mobilise people.

PM main ‘yajman’ at ceremony

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the main ‘yajman’ (patron on whose behalf a ritual or yajna is performed) at the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony, Laxmikant Dixit, the head priest for the January 22 ritual, confirmed on Wednesday
• PM Modi is currently visiting Ram temples across India. On Wednesday, he offered obeisance at Sree Ramaswami Temple, Thrissur, in Kerala. He prayed at Nashik’s Kalaram in Panchvati on January 12 and Andhra Pradesh’s Veerabhadra Temple on January 16

This is when the BJP and RSS have firmed up plans to bring at least 50,000 daily visitors from all over India to Ayodhya and the VHP has pledged to reach 10 crore households with invitations to visit the Ram Mandir after January 22.

Lalu Prasad Yadav, Sharad Pawar, Arvind Kejriwal to skip Ram Mandir ceremony in Ayodhya

• INDIA bloc partners have united to skip the Ram Mandir ceremony in Ayodhya on Jan 22
• Lalu Prasad Yadav, Sharad Pawar and Arvind Kejriwal are latest to back out after Left, DMK, Cong & TMC leaders

Amid mass mobilisation around the Ram Mandir by the ruling dispensation, INDIA bloc leaders have firmly united to skip the January 22 inauguration with most declaring they will visit the temple after the ceremony. The latest INDIA alliance leaders to opt out of the January 22 ceremony are AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal; RJD’s Lalu Prasad Yadav and NCP’s Sharad Pawar on Wednesday.

Kejriwal said he had received the Ram Mandir invite but it allowed only one entry. “I will go after January 22 with my whole family,” the Delhi CM said, with AAP announcing plans to chant Sunder Kand, a crucial segment of the Ramayana, in each Assembly segment on the first Tuesday of every month. AAP has also said it would hold Sunder Kand and Hanuman Chalisa recitals at 2,600 locations across Delhi in the days ahead.

Trinamool Congress president and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will visit Kalighat temple in Kolkata on January 22 and lead a multi-faith harmony. Pawar and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav too will visit the Ram Mandir after January 22 while Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray has plans of performing a maha aarti at Nashik’s famous Kalaram temple which PM Modi visited on January 12.

Indications are that former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi will offer prayers at either the Kamakhya or any other historic temple in Assam on January 22. His ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will be in Assam on the day of Ram Mandir inauguration.

In Odisha, Biju Janata Dal president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday inaugurated a Rs 800 crore heritage corridor around Puri’s renowned Jagannath Temple with plans to ensure 10,000 daily visits by people from all over the state to the temple starting January 22. Earlier Left, Congress and DMK had declined the January 22 invite.

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