"I did not want to take the photograph of Lord Ram but etch his image in my heart instead," said Amit Pathak, a resident of Tulsinagar in Ayodhya, a day ahead of the 'pran pratishtha' ceremony at the Ram temple.
Samajwadi Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya on Tuesday resigned as the party's national general secretary accusing the leadership of discriminating against him and not defending him over his remarks.
Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani has said the Ram Janmbhoomi movement, whose primary objective was construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, also became a symbol of 'reclaiming the true meaning of secularism from the onslaught of pseudo-secularism'.
Utkarsh Mishra's impressions of the Narendra Modi roadshow in Varanasi.
Aiyar in a video posted on Facebook, however, stated that she did not live in the colony represented by the RWA and that she did not receive any "notice" (letter) from it.
Struggling to gain political traction on issues of corruption, the West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party is shifting its focus to emotive topics such as the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in a bid to achieve its target of securing 35 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats from the state.
The Allahabad high court, in its judgment of 2010 on four civil lawsuits, had partitioned the 2.77-acre disputed land in Ayodhya equally among the three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.
highlights of the Supreme Court judgment in which it unanimously granted the entire 2.77 acre of the disputed Ram Janambhoomi-Babri masjid land in Ayodhya to deity Ram Lalla.
The temple, you realise, is true to hype and is stunning in its beauty.
A marvel in white, it's simply eye-catching, and every inch a temple for the new India, notes Saisuresh Sivaswamy/Rediff.com after a visit to the new shrine.
The PM urged all citizens to light diyas in their houses on January 22 so that the whole country basks in glory.
A senior RITES official said the new station building comes equipped with many modern facilities that passengers usually get at an airport, but the architecture of its facade "embraces tradition" in a nod to the upcoming Ram temple.
Prasad said the Bharatiya Janata Party never linked the Ram Mandir issue with polls.
Kovind, who is on his first visit to Ayodhya after the landmark 2019 Supreme Court verdict paved the way for the construction of the temple, also offered prayers at the Hanumangarhi shrine, about 2 km away.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday inaugurated Abu Dhabi's first Hindu stone temple amid devotional chants and in the presence of spiritual leaders of the Swaminarayan sect.
While 'Ram' and 'Sita' were the preferred names for many, a baby boy born to a Muslim family in the district hospital in Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh, was named Ram Rahim by his grandmother.
As BJP leaders went all out to project the event as a moment of national pride, some leaders were directly critical of the ceremony with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, belonging to the Communist Party of India-Marxist, slamming the state's role in the Ram Temple consecration, saying the line that demarcates religion and state seems to be 'getting thinner and thinner'.
Rahul Gandhi's yatra was marked with high drama on Monday as he was denied permission to visit the Sri Sri Sankardeva Satra in Nagaon district and also from holding a meeting in the Morigaon district, triggering a strong reaction from the Congress leader who protested and asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will now 'decide who will visit a temple and when'.
The outline for the construction of the Ramjanaki Path and the Bhakti Path is also ready, the statement issued in Lucknow said.
Most politicians and even non-politicians have been honoured because of what they were purported to be electorally worth for the ruling party of their time, argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Bharat is the core value that has to be lived by and if you deny it, then the people will discard you.'
'They hate him so much that if PM Modi says the Sun rises in the east the Congress will say the Sun rises in the west.'
'Rama is Lord God of maryada. Today's maryada is the Constitution.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party vs ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam battle over live telecast of the Ayodhya Ram temple consecration in Tamil Nadu shrines reached the Supreme Court on Monday, with the apex court asking the authorities to act in accordance with the law and not based on any oral instructions.
"For us Ram temple is a matter of faith and not politics," Thackeray said.
Invitees to the 'pran pratishtha' consecration ceremony at the Ram temple started arriving Sunday in Ayodhya -- once a sleepy town now resplendent with new infrastructure and gripped by heightened religious fervour on the eve of a seminal event in India's political and religious history.
'Hindus have fought for almost 500 years for the land and today our dream has been realised.'
The Ayodhya district administration has told news channels that litigants in the Ayodhya land dispute case should not be part of any discussions that they broadcast from the temple town during the 'Bhumi Pujan' for the Ram temple on August 5. In an advisory, it also said that if channels are broadcasting a debate or programme from Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh during the ground-breaking ceremony, there should be no comments against any person or religion.
This visit by the prime minister comes weeks ahead of the 'pran pratishtha' or consecration ceremony of the Ram temple.
Work on building a pilgrimage facilitation centre and other utilities in Ayodhya's Ram temple complex has started, with 'darshan' of Ram Lalla expected to open in December 2023, according to a senior official of the construction committee.
Delhi chief minister Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday offered prayers at the Ram Janmabhoomi site in Ayodhya, and said his government will include the temple town of Ayodhya in the Delhi government's free pilgrimage scheme.
Several states declared a holiday for schools, while government offices, other establishments and public sector banks remained closed for half a day.
The best-case scenario is that the BJP will top out at around 50 seats in UP -- a drop of 12 from the 62 it had won in 2019. Taken in tandem with Maharashtra and Karnataka, this is what is likely to put paid to the BJP's ambitions of a third term for Modi, argues Prem Panicker.
'They were as late as June 2023 and they did not follow it up with concrete measures immediately in terms of a secretariat or common minimum programme, working group or seat sharing etc.' 'They continued to have periodic meetings after a gap of weeks where they had tasty dinner and coffee, but beside that they did nothing else.'
The bench on October 16 had reserved the judgment after marathon hearing of 40 days.
The following is the chronology of events related to the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute in which, after the Supreme Court verdict, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday conducted the 'Bhoomi Pujan' or ground breaking ceremony and laid the foundation stone for the temple's construction.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday promised to introduce a free pilgrimage scheme for the people of different communities in Uttarakhand if the Aam Aadmi Party came to power in the state.
The plea contended that Parliament has no legislative competence to acquire land belonging to the state.
Ahead of the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, Keshav Prasad Maurya, Deputy Chief Minister announced that roads would be constructed in the state after the name of 'kar sevaks' who died in 1990 during Ram Mandir movement in Ayodhya.
'It is not his doing, but Rahul Gandhi is forced by circumstances.' 'In taking political decisions, everything has to get his clearance.'
Will BJP campaigners start using the term 'Ram Rajya' to refer to the nation under Modi's rule, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.