Can’t be at Ram temple inauguration? RSS charts a plan to ‘make whole country Ayodhya’

Champat Rai, the international vice president of the VHP and the general secretary of the temple trust, held a meeting of the Kashi prant in Varanasi on October 29. Likewise, trust member Anil Mishra addressed the meeting of Awadh prant in Lucknow earlier this week, while a senior VHP leader recently addressed the Uttarakhand prant meeting virtually.

“Since prominent temples are located across Uttarakhand, which is mostly hilly, we will require more than 1,000 workers to distribute akshat, organise the puja and also the live-streaming (of the consecration ceremony) at these temples on January 22,” said an RSS functionary in Dehradun.

The offering of akshat — rice grains mixed with turmeric and ghee — will be sent in brass urns to nearly 200 VHP and RSS volunteers at Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya on Sunday. They will then leave for their prant headquarters.

“Each prant will be given 5 kg akshat. They will take it to their respective prant headquarters for distribution. They will mix more rice and turmeric in it. Akshat will reach villages and wards across the country by December-end. It will be distributed door-to-door from January 1 to January 15. Our target is to also have 5 crore households light diyas,” said a member of the temple trust, adding that the plan was “to turn the whole country into Ayodhya, with such programmes at over 5 lakh temples”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will be present at the prana pratishtha ceremony in Ayodhya on January 22, apart from over 4,000 sants and 2,500 “eminent citizens”.

Later, volunteers of RSS affiliates from different prants will also visit the Ram temple. Nearly 25,000 volunteers of the Kashi region are slotted to visit Ayodhya on January 30.

Besides, BJP leaders of Ayodhya have been assigned the task of “sewa karya (service)”. “We have started making a list of social organisations that would distribute free food starting January 1. The party’s medical cell is finalising a list of doctors to provide medical assistance to devotees and volunteers,” a BJP functionary in Ayodhya said.