A senior official of the trust overseeing the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya has drawn an astonishing comparison between the date of the shrine’s inauguration and Independence Day.

“January 22, 2024, is as important for the country as August 15, 1947,” Champat Rai, general secretary of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, told reporters on Saturday.

January 22 is the day the Ram temple is scheduled to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi — weeks ahead of a general election — in the presence of a galaxy of VIP guests.

“This day is also as important as 1971, when about 1 lakh Pakistani soldiers surrendered before our army. This day is on a par with the day our country reclaimed its right over Kargil in 1999,” Rai, a Vishwa Hindu Parishad vice-president and former RSS pracharak, said.

“The Ram temple is a medium to unite the entire country,” he asserted.

The site of the temple has been one of the most divisive issues in contemporary Indian history.

Rai has been in charge of the Ram temple chapter of the Sangh Parivar for the past three decades and was a key player in the Ayodhya movement.

Modi will be the main host for the Pran Pratishtha of the Ram idol on January 22, and will perform the first aarti amid the chanting of hymns by 121 priests from Varanasi, his parliamentary constituency.

Trust treasurer Swami Govind Dev Giri said Modi would perform the main ritual “during the auspicious 84 seconds between 12:29:08pm and 12:30:32pm”.

Giri said the 121 priests had been selected by Jayendra Saraswati, Shankaracharya of the Kanchi Kamkothi Peetham.

“All the materials to be used in the puja will be taken from Kashi (Varanasi) to Ayodhya. The first team of priests will leave for Ayodhya on December 26 to start preparations for the puja,” Arun Dixit, one of the 121 priests selected, told reporters in Varanasi.

“The rituals will begin on January 16 with a Jal Yatra to the Saryu river and Nagar Bhraman by Lord Ram. The following day has been scheduled for a Ganesh Puja.”

The priests will carry water from the Saryu in pitchers (kalash), accompanying the Ram idol as it is taken around the town in an open vehicle. Lord Ganesh is worshipped at the beginning of any puja.

Ganeshwar Shastri Dravid, the Varanasi astrologer who suggested the date and time for the event, said: “It (the timing) was decided keeping in mind Lord Ram’s time of birth and the most auspicious time for the PM.”

Invitee list

An army of A-listers from politics, Bollywood and India Inc. has been invited to the Pran Pratistha, among them many Opposition stalwarts.

A Trust-approved committee has met Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, former Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and H.D. Deve Gowda, and Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal, among others, and handed them invitation cards, sources said.

“We are officially revealing the names of some of the guests while not mentioning some others for political reasons,” a senior RSS leader said, asking not to be quoted.

“Alok Kumar, international president of the VHP, Nripendra Misra, former bureaucrat and head of the committee for the construction of the temple, and Ram Lal, an RSS leader, have met these and other politicians personally and invited them to the programme.”

He added: “The heads of all political parties including BSP chief Mayawati have been invited.”

Champat Rai confirmed that Misra, Kumar, Ram Lal and RSS joint general secretary Krishna Gopal had met political leaders with invitation cards but would not mention names except for Deve Gowda’s.

He said several other teams had met Bollywood personalities and industrialists and invited them.

“A team met film star Rajinikanth in Chennai and invited him. Actors Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit, Arun Govil and Nitish Bharadwaj and film director Madhur Bhandarkar have been invited. Natarajan Chandrasekaran of the Tata group, the Ambanis (Mukesh and Anil) and Gautam Adani have received invitations,” Rai said.

“About 4,000 sadhus from all sects, and the heads of all the important temples of India will attend the function. So will the owners of many media houses, writers, poets, painters and sportspersons. But we have requested the elderly and the ill to avoid coming here on that date because it will be a three-hour programme and they may have to walk for a kilometre.”

Rai tried to play down the reports about the exclusion of BJP veterans L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi from the guest list, saying they too had been invited but advised to avoid visiting Ayodhya.

“Advani is very old. I personally talked to Joshi and asked him not to come here because of health reasons, but he said he would attend the function,” he said.

Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh indicated that party representatives would attend the temple inauguration.

“The Trust doesn’t belong to any political party and so the guests should attend the programme. Sonia Gandhi has received the invitation and either she or her delegation will be there,” he said.

“But they have not invited me. They don’t want true Ram bhakts like Advani, Joshi and me to be there.”

Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait, who was in the temple town on Friday, said: “I was born here in Ayodhya. My ancestors considered themselves the original residents of this city. Unfortunately, they have not given me the invitation card. They are inviting those whose names have been cleared by the central government.”