Ayodhya Event: PM Modi met Yogi Adityanath as he landed in Ayodhya.
Here is your ten-point cheat sheet on this big story:
PM Modi first offered prayers at the Hanumangarhi temple - a shrine to Lord Hanuman. He later went to the Ramjanmabhoomi or birthplace of Lord Ram to pray at the shrine to "Ram Lalla", the infant Lord Ram. Every spot is decked with flowers and highlights different forms of art.
PM Modi, who in 1990 was one of the organizers of the nationwide campaign for a temple at the site where the 16th century Babri mosque once stood, will lay a silver brick as part of the groundbreaking ceremony. The temple campaign marked the emergence of the BJP as a national electoral force.
Images released on Monday of the temple design showed a grand three-storey stone structure with multiple turrets, pillars and domes. The temple will be 161 feet tall.
Besides PM Modi, 50 VIPs including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Mohan Bhagwat - the chief of the BJP's ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) - are attending the ceremony. Iqbal Ansari, a litigant in the temple-mosque dispute, was the first person to be invited.
Party veterans LK Advani - who led the Ram temple movement in the 1990s -- will attend through video-conference because of coronavirus precautions.
The Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust, tasked with building the temple, issued a last-minute invite to him and another prominent face of the movement, Murli Manohar Joshi. Uma Bharti, another key BJP leader of the temple campaign, is attending the ceremony after previously saying she would stay away as a coronavirus precaution.
The temple movement took centre stage in the 1990s with LK Advani's rath yatras to pitch for a Ram temple at the site where the 16th century Babri mosque stood. On December 6, 1992, the mosque was razed by activists who believed it was built on the ruins of an ancient temple that marked Lord Ram's birthplace. More than 2,000 people died in the riots that followed.
Last year, after several efforts at mediation failed, the Supreme Court delivered a landmark verdict handing over the 2.77 acres of land claimed by both Hindus and Muslims for a Ram temple. The court ordered a five-acre plot at a different site in Ayodhya for a mosque.
Today's festivities, held at a time recommended by astrologers, are vastly curtailed because of the coronavirus battle with over 50,000 daily infections. Home Minister Amit Shah, has been hospitalized with the virus. A priest and 14 policemen on duty near the temple site have also tested positive.
Some 175 spiritual leaders are attending the ceremony being beamed onto large screens around the country and even on the huge displays at Times Square in New York. Soil from almost 2,000 holy sites around India and water of around 100 holy rivers will be used in the temple foundation.
