1. Ram Lalla idol consecrated

| Jan 22, 2024, 23:16 IST

The event

A new Ram Lalla idol was consecrated on Monday at Janmabhoomi site in Ayodhya, where a temple is under construction. Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the consecration event.
Modi described it as the advent of a new era as hundreds watched the ceremony in Ayodhya and millions of people watched the ‘pran pratishtha' ceremony telecast live over various platforms.
Happening just months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the consecration ceremony saw almost no participation of leaders from the Opposition parties.

‘A solution’

"Today, our Ram has arrived. After a long wait for ages, our Ram has arrived. Our Ram Lalla will no longer live in a tent,” said Modi, referring to the make-shift temple where an idol of Ram was placed after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992.
“There were times when some people said the country would be on fire if the temple was built”, Modi said, "I would urge those people to rethink. Ram is not fire but energy. Ram is not a dispute, but a solution. Ram is not just ours but belongs to everyone.”

The idol

The new idol depicts Ram at the age of five. It has been carved from black stone by Mysuru-based sculptor Arun Yogiraj.
The idol is draped in a yellow dhoti, and adorned with stone-studded jewellery and flowers in shades of red, yellow and purple.

The ceremony

Army helicopters showered flower petals on the newly constructed Janmabhoomi temple. Celebrations broke out in Ayodhya, other parts of Uttar Pradesh and several towns and villages across the country, with people singing and dancing.

A long-standing agenda

The consecration event completes the BJP’s two of the three core agendas that the party had set decades ago — the other two being the scrapping of Article 370 which gave a special status to J&K and the implementation of a uniform civil code.
In 2019, the Modi government ceased the operation of Article 370 in J&K. Watch Modi’s speech here

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