Bengal BJP lines up massive outreach of daylong events across state on January 22
Telegraph | 20 January 2024
The BJP and the entire saffron ecosystem have lined up a massive outreach of daylong events across Bengal on January 22, the day of the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“From early morning to evening, the party’s rank and file across Bengal will be busy with events involving as many as people possible.... Our goal is even not to leave a single Hindu village out of the January 22 celebrations,” said a BJP leader, adding all events would be organised “without political colour”.
Modi will perform pran pratishta of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya on January 22.
The saffron ecosystem will celebrate the day in stages. As a step towards the celebrations, the BJP asked its leaders across Bengal to select Ram temples and clean those for seven days from January 14. Sources said hundreds of temples have been cleaned and BJP leaders, especially women, have performed puja at those shrines.
“There are many Ram temples in districts. We had asked district units to identify and clean them up and perform puja. Special puja will be offered at the temples on January 22,” a BJP leader said.
For a visual impact, leaders have been asked to install large photographs of Lord Ram at these temples, most of which will be venues for the live telecast of Monday’s ceremony.
“We will install a big picture of Lord Ram in each of the venues where the day will start with religious songs. Devotional songs will continue till 12.30 pm when Narendra Modi ji will take part in the consecration ceremony. The screening of the event will be done on giant screens or big TV sets. Arranging a live telecast of the event is mandatory,” said a BJP leader in East Burdwan.
“In the afternoon, a rally with the picture of Lord Ram will be taken out. A team of kirtan singers accompanying the rally will touch all possible Hindu villages in the locality,” he added.
The BJP Mahila Morcha members have been asked to ensure all households in their respective areas light at least five diyas (earthen lamps) on the evening of January 22.
“We have asked people to organise puja in the morning and light at least five diyas in the evening,” a BJP state general secretary Agnimitra Paul said.
A BJP leader said the events would not end on January 22, and it had a slew of programmes lined up, including taking people from the state to Ayodhya in different phases.
The RSS and the Hindu Jagaran Manch have planned to take 5,000 people from Bengal to Ayodhya on February 6.
“We are preparing the list of such devotees,” said Sanjay Kumar Mondal of Hindu Jagaran Manch in south Bengal.
BJP MLA and leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, who has already promised to send 100 people every month to Ayodhya to see the Ram temple, said: “The entire programme has been designed by Ram Janmobhoomi Tirtha Kshetra Trust.... We are just following orders. It is one of the biggest days in the history of the country and so everyone should be a part of it.”
The Ram temple on Chittaranjan Avenue in Calcutta will also join the festivities. “We will install three giant screens inside and outside our temple. The temple will be illuminated, too,” said Bharat Jalan, the trustee of Seth Soorajmull Jalan Trust that runs the temple, a school, a college and a library.
Shishir Bajoria, a BJP leader and a relative of the Jalans, said an apolitical rally from Ganesh Talkies to the Chittaranjan Avenue Ram temple would be held on Monday morning to join the Ayodhya celebrations.