‘IT’S LIKE NATION BUILDING’
Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust chief Mahant Nritya Gopal Das said Wednesday that the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya is a work of public welfare and it is like building the nation and the world.
"The feeling, wish and desire of the Hindu people is that a divine temple is constructed at the earliest and we are able to see it with our eyes," he said after the bhoomi pujan for the temple in Ayodhya by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Gopal Das said the construction of the temple is like building the nation and building the world. It is a work of public welfare, he said.
"It is a matter of happiness. I was often asked when will the temple be built," he said, adding he now says, "Ek oar Modi aur ek oar Yogi, ab nahi to kab banega (On one side Modi and on the other Yogi, if not now then when?)." "A pleasant time has come. It is the wish and desire of crores of Hindu devotees of Lord Ram that the place were Lord Ram is seated a grand temple is built. All of them are ready to contribute mind, body and wealth for this," the mahant added.
Gopal Das, UP chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Governor Anandiben Patel, and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat were on the dais with the prime minister, consecrating the very first bricks that will go into building the temple.
Across the country, people remained glued to their television sets as Prime Minister Modi performed the bhoomi pujan at the Ram Janmabhoomi, the site of a bitter Hindu-Muslim conflict that lasted decades before being settled by the Supreme Court last year.
The groundbreaking in Ayodhya was marked by smaller events elsewhere -from the blowing of a conch at a jewellery shop beyond the barricades in Ayodhya itself to more elaborate rituals in Delhi.