Ram’s Ayodhya has gone the Modi way. What do locals think?

With two days left for the consecration ceremony of the partially complete Ram Janmabhoomi temple, the streets of Ayodhya have been decked up with hundreds of posters featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Some feature the new temple, some feature illustrations of Ram, some feature the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath – but all of them feature Modi. 

While several in the opposition refused to attend the January 22 ceremony, alleging that the consecration has been turned into a BJP/RSS event, PM Modi’s enhanced visual presence in the temple town ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections signals an electoral push for the party. 

“It’s good that Congress rejected the invite. More Hindutva votes will now go to Modi,” 63-year-old Gulab Chand Sharma told Newslaundry. 

But conspicuously absent from these visuals were the faces of party stalwarts LK Advani, Uma Bharti, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, among several others, who were originally associated with the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. As Tahir Abbas Naqvi, a political activist from Lucknow, told Newslaundry, “Our fathers were fans of Advani. This generation has the craze for Modi and Yogi.”

So, what do devotees think of Modi’s role in the construction of the Ram temple? Do they think the consecration is being politicised? And how do they view the absence of BJP bigwigs in the ‘Ayodhya renaissance’ (as Times Now’s Navika Kumar calls it)? 

Watch our video report to find out.