In fact, the Prime Minister has been given two dates August 3 and August 5, but the power corridors in Delhi are buzzing and speculating that PM Narendra Modi would like to give a political message by picking August 5 as the date of the visit. Interestingly, August 5 will also mark one year of the abrogation of Article 370 as on this day in 2019 the special status accorded to Jammu and Kashmir was removed and the Bill to create two separate Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir in its place was passed.
Govind Giri Maharaj, member of Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust, which has been entrusted with the building of the Ram Temple has told the media that two dates have been suggested for the visit of PM Narendra Modi. “Our first priority is to hold the foundation laying ceremony and for this, we have invited Prime Minister Modi. We have suggested July 29, and August 5 as auspicious dates. We will hold the ceremony in the presence of Prime Minister,” he said to a news agency.
Concerned authorities reached the conclusion that the site is ready for ‘Bhumi Pujan’, which was delayed owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Levelling work at the construction site has also been concluded. The next step involves laying down a foundation for the temple. For constructing of a temple 161 feet high, the plan is to dig as deep as 60 metres to ascertain suitability of soil and location. The temple may have five domes as against the three proposed earlier.
A broad blueprint of the Prime Minister’s participation in these rituals has been drawn and if PM Narendra Modi joins the ceremony, he could lay the foundation in the auspicious ‘Abhijaat Mahurta’. The Prime Minister could also install a copper ‘Kalash’ (vessel), containing holy water from rivers like the Ganges and a few precious stones. It is perfectly designed photo-op for the Prime Minister.
To ward off evil forces and to pay respect to Hindu gods, small silver figurines of a male-female snake and a tortoise may be buried at the construction site. As per Vedic rituals, five ‘shilas’ (stones) will be worshipped during the ceremony.
The Ayodhya dispute which was languishing in court for nearly 70 years was resolved last year on November 9 when a five-judge Supreme Court bench cleared the way for the construction of a Ram Temple at the disputed site at Ayodhya, and directed the Union government to allot a five acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a mosque.
According to the plan, the temple will be built in the next three and half years and pilgrims will be allowed to visit the temple by then. This will give an opportunity to the Bharatiya Janata Party to showcase fulfilling its long time promise mandated in its political manifesto. Undoubtedly this ‘Mandir’ issue will again be used and will play crucial role in luring the voters in the most populous State of Uttar Pradesh where Assembly polls are due in mid-2022. Other States which will undergo Assembly elections almost during the same period are Uttrakhand, Punjab, Manipur and our own State of Goa. Gujarat’s next Assembly polls are slated for December 2022.
Also, if the Prime Minister decides to visit Ayodhya on August 5 then entire media attention will be on Ayodhya and in all likelihood very little space will be left to discuss the situation and he consequences of ‘one year of abrogation of Article 370’. The attention will shift to Ayodhya from Srinagar. Both ways PM Modi has placed himself politically in a very advantageous position, as even at this moment the opposition infighting continues in Jaipur (Rajasthan).
