Advani, Joshi, Uddhav invited for Ayodhya ‘bhoomi pujan’

NEW DELHI: Frontline leaders of the Ram temple movement, including L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, are among the invitees for the "bhoomi pujan" in Ayodhya on August 5, which is likely to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Other invitees include RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, Union home minister Amit Shah, defence minister Rajnath Singh, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, reports Arshad Afzaal Khan.
The Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust is trying to keep the number of invitees limited due to the Covid situation. Sources said around 300 people could be invited. The trust plans to recreate an atmosphere similar to the shilanyas for the Ram temple by Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Ayodhya on November 10, 1989 after then PM Rajiv Gandhi gave permission for it.
"Trust members are of the view that L K Advani took the Ram temple movement to the masses, and other key BJP figures also helped in popularising it," said trust member Kameshwar Chaupal. The list of invitees will be finalised soon, he added.
Mahant Kamal Nayan Das, spokesman of trust president Nritya Gopal Das, said: "Five silver bricks will be put inside the sanctum sanctorum during the ‘bhoomi pujan’ by PM Modi. These bricks symbolise the five planets as per Hindu mythology."