 "Ram mandir, ayodhya")
The Sangh Parivar and dozens of its affiliates are devoting themselves to urging Hindus across India to celebrate January 22, the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi will consecrate the Ram temple in Ayodhya, as a “national festival”.
They are exhorting people to watch the live telecast of the ceremony on television, visit nearby temples to light lamps, and take part in “shobha yatras” or processions planned for the day in their localities.
On Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Uttar Pradesh became the first state in the country to declare January 22 a holiday for schools and colleges. UP and some other BJP state governments have announced that the sale of alcohol and meat will not be permitted on the day. The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) has asked Hindus living abroad to visit temples on the day.
The event is set to have economic spinoffs, with the sale of religious merchandise reporting an increase. Manufacturers of brass artefacts in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad, called the “brass city”, have reported receiving demands for statues of Ram and Sita. In Delhi’s Sadar Bazar, the national capital’s wholesale hub, traders say models of the Ram temple, saffron flags depicting the shrine and related “gift items” were the flavour of the season and competing with tricolour sales for Republic Day.
Praveen Khandelwal, general secretary of the Confederation of All India Traders, said the Ram temple’s construction and forthcoming consecration had spawned “business prospects of millions of rupees, especially benefitting small manufacturers, traders and cottage industries”.
“Manufacturers and traders of Ram temple models, photographs, brass artefacts and gift items made of cardboard and pine wood have seen a sharp increase in sales,” he said, adding that printers of religious literature, banners, flags and tees, and even the music industry had benefitted.
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In the national capital, resident welfare associations and market bodies are in a rush to rent LED video walls to install in housing societies, markets and public places for devotees to watch the live telecast of the consecration ceremony.
According to Virender Babbar, who heads the Delhi Sound and Light Welfare Association, the demand for sound systems, tents, LED walls and even “wedding brass bands” had risen.
“We estimate events will be organised in 15,000 temples across Delhi and another 10,000 or so in markets and localities. The BJP’s block committees have booked sound systems, LED walls, and tents since it is the winter season. Shobha yatras are likely to start from January 16 and the BJP has hired brass bands for these,” Babbar told Business Standard.
He, however, wondered whether January 22 might take away from the enthusiasm usually reserved for the Republic Day celebrations on January 26. “So far, the bookings for sound systems for January 26 are not as much as those for January 22.”
According to a VHP leader, the outfit has appealed to Hindus worldwide, especially in countries that allow religious freedom, to celebrate January 22 by visiting temples. PTI reported that members of the Hindu American community held a car rally across Houston on Sunday, stopping at 11 temples along the way amid bhajans and “Jai Shri Ram” slogans.
The temples received a formal invitation from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America to attend the consecration ceremony. Over 500 riders, carrying saffron banners with an image of the Ram temple, and the Indian and American flags, participated in the rally forming a 3-mile stream of 216 cars escorted by eight police officers on bikes. “We are blessed to be living in this time and to be celebrating the return of Shri Ram to Ayodhya,” said Umang Mehta, one of the organisers.
On Tuesday, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath became the latest among the Sangh Parivar leadership to encourage people to celebrate January 22 as a “national festival”, announcing that schools and colleges in the state would remain shut. “Considering the significance of the consecration ceremony of the eagerly awaited new idol of Shri Ram Lalla in Ayodhya Dham, the CM has declared a holiday in educational institutions on January 22,” an official release said.
For the convenience of tourists visiting Ayodhya, the CM instructed the administration to install multilingual signage across the city, including in all languages from the 8th Schedule of the Constitution and the six official languages of the United Nations. He also directed officials to inscribe verses from the Ramcharitmanas on the highways from Lucknow, Prayagraj and Gorakhpur leading up to Ayodhya. More than 500 social media influencers will undertake a month-long 4,500 km yatra tracing the route taken by Lord Ram to return to Ayodhya from Tamil Nadu after the end of his exile. The Ramotsav Yatra will traverse Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
In West Bengal, at a public programme at Joynagar in South 24 Parganas on Tuesday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the BJP was indulging in a “gimmick show” through the inauguration of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. She said that “she does not support festivities that exclude other communities”.
TEMPLE RUN
· UP CM Yogi Adityanath orders closure of schools and colleges on Jan 22, urges people to celebrate the day as a ‘national festival’
· VHP leader Champat Rai calls Jan 22 India’s “cultural independence day”
· Sangh Parivar workers taking out prabhat pheris, or morning rounds, to localities
· Cadres distribute akshat, or rice, to devotees, urging them to visit temples, make offerings to the deity on Jan 22 and light lamps
· Moradabad brass industry sees increase in demand for statues
· In Delhi’s Sadar Bazar, sale of religious merchandise rivals that of tricolour for Republic Day
· RWAs, market bodies book tents, sound systems and LED walls in Delhi for live telecast of consecration
· Shobha yatras or processions to begin from Jan 16
