New Delhi: A day after Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra (Ram Temple Trust) general secretary Champat Rai told the media that veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi — who were among those who had spearheaded the Ram Janmabhoomi movement in the 1990s — had been requested to not attend the consecration ceremony of the temple in Ayodhya next month, keeping their advanced age and health conditions in mind, senior Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) extended invitation to both leaders to attend the big-ticket event.
The development comes following a backlash by the BJP cadre following Rai’s comments.
Sources told ThePrint that VHP president Alok Sharma, RSS joint general secretary Krishna Gopal and communication head Ramlal, met Advani Tuesday to invite him to the Ram Mandir’s pran prathishthan (consecration) ceremony in January. The former deputy Prime Minister, who turned 96 last month, has expressed his intent to be in Ayodhya for the ceremony.
The VHP and RSS are among those organising the temple inauguration.
“Three leaders came to invite Advani ji for the temple ceremony and Advani ji showed his interest to be present at the ceremony. It is up to the organising committee to make arrangements for his participation. He had started the Ram Temple agitation and this is a happy moment for everybody in the country,” a close of Advani told ThePrint.
The aide added that there was “no difficulty in his participation in the ceremony”.
Similarly, a close aide to Joshi told ThePrint, “he is in good health and he participated in a few public functions recently, including one for old RSS functionaries. He continues to write scientific papers regularly despite his old age. Champat Rai ji talked to Dr Joshi, but he is interested to participate in the ceremony.”
Joshi will turn 90 next month.
On Monday, Rai was quoted in the media as saying, “Both are elders of the family and considering their age, they were requested not to come, which was accepted by both.”
However, VHP’s Sharma told ThePrint Tuesday that “both leaders, who are faces of Ram Mandir construction, have been invited and both have shown an inclination to attend ceremony.”
Sharma added: “The [Ram Temple] trust has also invited former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda. He has asked about the availability of wheelchairs, we have assured him that not only a wheelchair, but a dedicated person be put in charge of arrangements for him. Similar arrangements will be made for Advani ji and Joshi ji.”
Meanwhile, addressing the backlash over Rai’s comments, a BJP functionary close to both Advani and Joshi told ThePrint that “going to the ceremony is one thing, but not sending an invitation [to them] was an effort by the present regime to take credit of the entire Ram temple construction. Today BJP is standing owing to the labour of Vajpyee [former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee], Advani and Joshi. The leadership cultivated by these leaders is ruling the country [today]. Effort to take credit away from these leaders is cheap politics.”
In 1990, Advani had embarked on the Ram Rath Yatra from Somnath in Gujarat to Ayodhya to press for his party’s demand for the temple. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then a young party leader, had not only been a prominent face of the Gujarat leg of the Yatra, but also played a key role in the signature campaign to collect signatures in favour of building the temple.
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Religious heads, film personalities, industrialists among invitees
Speaking to the media Monday, Rai said that while the Ram temple will be inaugurated on 22 January, the ‘pran prathishthan puja” will begin on 16 January.
Preparations are on in full swing for Prime Minister Modi’s welcome to the inauguration.
“Shankaracharyas of six ‘darshanas’ [ancient schools] and about 150 saints and sages will join the ceremony,” he added.
According to the Ram Temple Trust general secretary, about 4,000 saints and 2,200 other guests have been invited for the ceremony. Rai added that heads of major temples like Kashi Vishwanath, Vaishno Devi and representatives of religious and constitutional institutions have also been invited.
The Dalai Lama, Mata Amritanandamayi, a religious leader from Kerala, yoga guru Baba Ramdev, film stars Rajinikanth, Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit and Arun Govil, film director Madhur Bhandarkar and prominent industrialists such as Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani, painter Vasudev Kamat and Indian Space Research Organisation director Nilesh Desai are among other eminent invitees, Rai added.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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