Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to people on Saturday not to rush to Ayodhya on January 22, the day he is to inaugurate the new Ram temple, but light a lamp at their homes.

“Everybody wants to be a witness to the event of January 22. But you know that it is very difficult,” he said, addressing a gathering after inaugurating the Maharshi Valmiki International Airport in Ayodhya.

“I appeal to Ram bhakts of the country, particularly of Uttar Pradesh, to let the event be held properly. They may come to Ayodhya, according to their convenience, after January 22.”

After his plane landed at the new airport, Modi held an about 8km road show across Ayodhya town, during which he inaugurated a renovated Ayodhyadham Junction railway station.

Modi reiterated: “Don’t plan a visit to Ayodhya on January 22. We, the bhakts, must not do anything to give trouble to Lord Ram. Lord Ram is coming; we can wait a few more days if we have waited for him for 550 years.”

The Sangh Parivar claims that the original Ram temple was demolished and a Babri Masjid built at the site in the 1520s.

“I repeatedly pray to you not to arrive here on January 22, keeping in mind the security and management (of the event). Only a few people have been invited,” Modi said.

The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has invited 7,000 people to the January 22 ceremony, including 4,000 sadhus and a host of political leaders, industrialists, film stars and sportspersons.

“We are fortunate that this historic moment (of inaugurating a new Ram temple) has arrived in our lifetime. We have to take a pledge and fill ourselves with a new energy,” Modi said.

“I appeal to the 140 crore people of the country from this sacred land of Lord Ram, with folded hands, to light a Shri Ram Jyoti (lamp) at their homes and celebrate Deepavali on January 22. The entire country should look bright on the evening of January 22.”

After his road show, Modi visited the home of Meera Majhi, a Dalit beneficiary of the Prime Minister’s housing and free-stove-and-LPG-connection schemes.

“Some people came around 11am and told me that a senior politician would lunch with us at my home,” Meera told reporters.

“I quickly cooked rice, dal and vegetables. I then made a dough of wheat flour, thinking of making chapattis later. But then I saw the Prime Minister coming to my house.”

She added: “He didn’t eat anything but accepted tea from my hands. He asked me about my work and the benefits I have received. I told him I sell flowers on the Saryu’s ghats and that I have got a house, a stove and a gas cylinder under the government’s schemes. He said my income would now increase because of the Ram temple.”

Meera told reporters that her husband Suraj collects coins thrown into the river by devotees. He uses a magnet.

Modi inaugurated or laid the foundation stones for Rs 15,700 crore worth of projects in Ayodhya. Apart from the airport and renovated railway station, these included road-widening, bridge-building and beautification projects. The first commercial passenger flight landed at the airport a couple of hours after the inuaguration.

The Prime Minister flagged off six Vande Bharat and two Amrit Bharat trains from the Ayodhyadham Junction.

Emphasising the relevance of the date, December 30, Modi said in his speech in front of the airport that it was on this day in 1943 that Subhas Chandra Bose hoisted the flag of Independent India in Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

He said his government was focused not just on tradition and religion but also on development.

“Today’s India is celebrating itself. It is visible here in Ayodhya. Today we are witnessing the glory of development here. We will see the glory of tradition here after a few days,” he said.