PM Modi To Lay Foundation Stone Of Ram Mandir In Ayodhya On Aug 5; 200 People To Attend Ceremony

PM Modi will offer prayers to Lord Ram at the temple and Lord Hanuman at Hanuman Garhi Temple before laying the foundation stone for the construction of the temple.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (File Photo/ Getty)

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of the Ram Mandir which is slated to be constructed in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya on August 5. On the backdrop the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic and to ensure social distancing, the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirtha Kshetra has decided that there will be only 200 people, including invitees, at the foundation stone lying ceremony. Kameshwar Chaupal, a member of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra, a trust set up by the Centre to oversee the construction of the temple, said they will invite former deputy PM and veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and Vinay Katiyar. Ram Mandir trust spokesperson Nritya Gopal Das said five silver bricks will be placed inside the sanctum sanctorum during the ceremony. The bricks are believed to symbolise five planets as per the Hindu mythology, he said, adding that the design and the architecture of the temple is the same as the one proposed. According to trust sources, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat , Maharashtra Chief Minister Udhav Thackeray and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar are also on the list of invitees. As per reports, PM Modi will offer prayers to Lord Ram at the temple and Lord Hanuman at Hanuman Garhi Temple before laying the foundation stone for the construction of the temple. However, no official announcement has yet followed from the PMO. According to sources, a consensus has already been reached that Modi will visit Ayodhya for bhoomi pujan. A silver slab, weighing about 40 kilogram, will be placed in the sanctum sanctorum of the proposed grand Ram temple in Ayodhya during the 'bhoomi pujan' ceremony. The three-day rituals will begin from August 3 and culminate on August 5. The foundation of the temple will be laid at 12.13 p.m., the auspicious time fixed by priests after detailed calculation of planetary configurations. The decision about the tentative date was taken at a meeting of the Trust members held in Ayodhya on Saturday. After a protracted legal tussle, the Supreme Court had on November 9 last year paved the way for the construction of a Ram Temple by a Trust at the disputed site in Ayodhya, and directed the Centre to allot an alternative five-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a new mosque at a "prominent" place in the holy town in Uttar Pradesh.