oppn parties Ram Mandir At Ayodhya To Be Ready By September, 4 Months Ahead Of Schedule

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  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
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Ram Mandir At Ayodhya To Be Ready By September, 4 Months Ahead Of Schedule

By Linus Garg
First publised on 2023-03-19 15:38:32

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

Shree Ram Janambhoomi Teertha Khsetra Trust has announced that the Ram Temple at the birthplace of Lord Ram in Ayodhya will be ready by September 2023 (nearly four months ahead of the original deadline of January 2024). It said that with 70% work on the temple completed, it hopes to finish the pending work by September. It is likely that the Ram Temple will be dedicated to the nation and opened for the public in a grand ceremony on any auspicious day thereafter, maybe during the week leading to Dusserah or on Dusserah day, which falls on October 24 this year.

It is obvious that the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya is going to be the centrepiece of BJP's poll campaign in the 2024 general elections. The party has had the construction of the Ram Temple at Lord Ram's birthplace in Ayodhya as part of its agenda, and election manifestos, for many years now. With the long drawn out case in the courts coming to a conclusion with the decision of the Supreme Court to give the exact place where the now-demolished Babri Masjid stood to Hindu parties, the construction of the Ram Temple is a political victory for the BJP and it is going to flog it to consolidate Hindu votes.

With public memory being short, the other main point of the BJP manifesto - that of abrogating Article 370 - is now largely forgotten as it was done in August 2019, just a few months after the party won a resounding second term in 2019. With elections likely in April/May 2024, the opening of the Ram Temple in October 2023 or thereafter will give a huge push to the BJP campaign. Apart from the focus on development schemes, the good management of the Covid situation and economic growth, the timely construction of the Ram Temple will be used by the BJP to further consolidate the Hindu vote. For, it will be one thing that the opposition parties will not be able to criticize.