All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) Chief and Hyderabad Member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking part in the ‘bhoomi pujan’ (groundbreaking ceremony) of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Addressing the media on Wednesday, Owaisi said that the Prime Minister had “violated India’s secularism” by attending the ceremonial foundation stone laying ceremony.
“I have been saying that Modi shouldn't have attended today's bhoomi pujan. PM Modi has violated India's secularism today. It is a win for Hindutva and the death of secularism. Modi has set the agenda for Hindutva,” the AIMIM chief said.
Owaisi added that August 5 will be remembered as ‘a day of majoritarian politics’.
He said, “PM Modi said in his speech that it is an emotional day. But today, I am emotional too. I am emotional because I believe in equality. Our country's symbol cannot be a mandir (temple) or a masjid (mosque). By saying that the mandir is a symbol, he has endorsed majoritism”.
Last month, Owaisi had said that if the PM attends the foundation-laying ceremony, it would amount to “a violation of his constitutional oath.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday performed the 'bhoomi pujan' of a Supreme Court-mandated Ram temple in Ayodhya. The prime minister arrived in Ayodhya in a helicopter and was received by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. He offered prayers at the Hanumangarhi temple before travelling to the Ram Janmabhoomi site, where he first prayed before the deity of Ram Lalla. He also planted a parijat (Indian night jasmine) sapling, before the ‘bhoomi pujan’ began.
The century-long dispute on the holy site was settled on November 9, 2019, by the Supreme Court. The apex court in a unanimous judgement backed the construction of a Ram temple by a trust at the disputed site, and also ruled that an alternative five-acre plot must be found for a mosque in Ayodhya.
The Ram Janmabhoomi movement gained momentum in 1990 with then BJP president LK Advani's 'rath yatra'. Two years later, in December 1992, the 16th-century Mughal-era Babri Masjid, built on what Hindus believe is Rama's birthplace, was demolished.