On Monday, the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party in Gujarat backed a resolution in the state Assembly, extending congratulations to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
During the ongoing Budget Session of the House on Monday, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel proposed a resolution, expressing gratitude to Modi for fulfilling a “historic cultural duty that will be remembered for millennia.”
“We all know that owing to a far-sighted Prime Minister, devoted Hindu community, which waited for more than 500 years, could consecrate Ram Lalla at a grand temple in Ayodhya,” the chief minister said in his resolution.
Patel said that the people of Gujarat were emotional on January 22 when a “son of Gujarat” and former leader of the House inaugurated the temple.
“It was the same Narendrabhai who functioned as sarthi [charioteer] of historic rathyatra of Ram Janmabhoomi from Somnath to Ayodhya,” said Patel.
Senior Congress leader and MLA in Gujarat Arjun Modhwadia said that then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had way back in 1989 allowed the foundation stone laying ceremony at the site where the temple has come up.
“It is true that the final verdict on Ram temple was delivered in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s time,” said Modhwadia. “He was destined to take credit and the consecration was done through his hands. But before that, a lot of work has been done.”
“Rajiv Gandhi was the prime minister then. In 1986, the locks of Ram Mandir were opened for the first time and the chief minister [of Uttar Pradesh] was Vir Bahadur Singh of Congress and the prime minister was Rajiv Gandhi,” he added.
“It was Rajiv Gandhi who in 1989, after getting the blessings of Devraha Baba and Swarupanand Saraswati, gave permission for stone laying [of the temple],” he added.
He added: “In 1993, when Babri Masjid was demolished, [then prime minister] Narsimha Rao acquired and reserved 60-acre land for building the temple. After the struggle of innumerable people and after well wishes of innumerable people, this temple has been built. We all welcome it.”
The Ram temple is being built on the site of the razed Babri mosque. The Babri mosque was demolished by RSS and BJP mob on December 6, 1992, because they claimed that it stood on the spot where the Ram had been born.
Aam Aadmi Party’s Umesh Makwana also welcomed the resolution on behalf of his party and suggested that a hospital and a college should be built on the campus of the temple.
