As Lord Ram's temple is set for a grand opening, the banks of the river in Ayodhya erupted with celebration, reports Saisuresh Sivaswamy/Rediff.com
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"My suggestion is that Ram Janambhoomi be handed over for Ram Temple. We cannot change the birthplace of Ram," Swamy said.
Evening prayers on the banks of the Sarayu river in Ayodhya.
This was Murmu's first visit to Ayodhya since the newly-built Ram temple's consecration ceremony was held on January 22.
The government aims to better its last year's Guinness World Record by lighting 25 lakh diyas on the banks of Saryu river.
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Taken from the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite hovering over space, the image shared by ISRO on Sunday shows the grand new temple which will be inaugurated on January 22.
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NDRF director general Atul Karwal told PTI that the teams are undertaking continuous familiarisation exercises and conducting simulation drills in the temple town to respond to any contingency.
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On the occasion of Ram Navami, the makers of Adipurush launched a new poster featuring Prabhas, Kriti Sanon, Sunny Singh and Devdatta Nage.
'The temple's construction is the result of collective wisdom of some of the best brains in the country. Water and sacred soil from almost all pilgrimage sites in India, including Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kailash Mansarovar, Prayags (there are seven Prayags) and all 'puris' (seven holy towns in India, besides Ayodhya) have been used in the making of the temple'
BJP sources suggest that the upcoming elections will likely revolve around the renewed enthusiasm for the temple unless another theme with religious and nationalist undertones emerges.
The BJP enters challenging times where it has been given a task to hold onto the values of Ram in running the country as defined by Narendra Modi in Ayodhya, notes Sheela Bhatt.
With the spate of businesses turning their attention to Ayodhya, land rates have shot up, in some pockets by as much as 10 times. Whether one walks into a hotel lobby or sits down for a meal, land deals are being discussed at every other table -- one on one or among groups.
The construction committee of the temple, chaired by former principal secretary to the prime minister Nripendra Misra held deliberations over the matter in New Delhi on Tuesday, they said.
After paying obeisance to Ramlalla and overseeing the construction work of the temple, Shinde said he is happy that the dream of "Hindu Hriday Samrat" Balasaheb Thackeray and crores of Ram bhakts is being fulfilled.
The matter was mentioned for urgent hearing before a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha, which took it up on board.
'I must have done a lot of good deeds because of which I was getting the chance to talk to such a mahapurush.'
The realities at the nerve centre of the Ram Janambhoomi movement are lack of development, rampant unemployment and 12 hour-long power cuts. Most residents hope Narendra Modi will change the situation in Ayodhya.
The recent protests by employees of Urban Company and the case of a a Zomato delivery executive who died in a road accident point to the severely straitened condition of gig workers during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Budget 2021 had promised several measures to help the cause of gig economy workers, but most of them are yet to see the light of day. Even after a year, the country's gig workers continue to be without any social security cover or a minimum wage guarantee. "In Budget 2021, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced that the government is looking toward including migrant and gig workers for social security benefits," says Srinivas Kotni, managing partner, Lexport, a consulting firm. Parliament had passed the Code on Wages in 2019 and Code on Industrial Relations, Social Security and Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions in 2020.
As the evening progressed, Ram bhajans echoed at virtually each and every street of the temple town and earthen lamps lined the streets from Naya Ghat and Ram ki Paidhi to Hanumangarhi, giving children a perfect selfie background.
She further accused the EC of being biased and 'wrongly favouring' BJP leaders.
A total of 1.71 lakh earthen lamps were lit up at the grand event while a chopper decorated as the mythological 'Pushpak Viman' descended on the Ram Katha Park with artistes decked up to resemble Lord Ram, Sita and Laxman.
"It is the greatness of Ayodhya that the mosques surrounding the Ram temple are giving a strong message of communal harmony to the rest of the world," Haji Asad Ahmad, the corporator of the Ram Kot ward, told PTI.
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He will travel from Katra to Ayodhya on February 7 to dedicate to the nation a mega-bridge on Sarayu River.
Raghuvar Das, the national vice president of the Bharatiya Janata Party will be the first non-tribal chief minister of Jharkhand after he was elected the leader of BJP legislative party.
The JMM-Cong-RJD alliance won 47 seats in 81-member assembly while the incumbent BJP managed to win only 25 seats. CM Das lost his seat to a party rebel despite giving the first full-term government to the state.
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'The sooner Pakistan and India face these geopolitical realities, the better it will be for their own security and prosperity,' observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Politicians have long appropriated the hero turned god as their totem, but never before with the ferocious intensity of the present regime,' notes Arundhuti Dasgupta.
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'Politics and religion can be a combustive combination, but this once I am pleased that Pinarayi Vijayan made an issue of a rather innocuous tweet by Amit Shah.' 'It provided the perfect excuse to seek respite from political pronouncements and take (temporary) refuge in the classics,' says T V R Shenoy.
Twenty years after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, India is in rebirth mode. Whether there is a Babri Masjid or a Ram temple or not in Ayodhya, India will go on. And it will see many tomorrows, says Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
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