Guwahati: In a latest development, devotees have taken soil from the sacred Kamakhya temple in Guwahati city of Assam for the bhoomi pujan ceremony of the Ram Mandir construction in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.
The sacred soil was reportedly dug up by members of the Hindu Parishad (VHP) on July 27 and will now be taken to the site of the temple construction where it will be used in the foundation.
"Yesterday in the morning, the members of the VHP came and collected sacred water and some soil from the premises of the temple. This will be used during the auspicious ceremony that will be held shortly at the temple construction site in Ayodhya", Ridip Sarma, a Kamakhya temple priest, told The Sentinel Digital.
It needs mention here that the soil and holy water from many temples and water bodies from across India are being collected and sent to the temple site at Ayodhya by the Hindu organization's members to be incorporated in the foundation of the upcoming Ram Mandir.
The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to attend the event on August 5. However, Modi's detractors have chided the PM over his decision to take part in the ceremony of the temple that is being built on contested land.
Opposition leaders have claimed that the Prime Minister's presence at the ceremony would violate his oath to protect the secular nature of the constitution.
"Attending Bhumi Pujan in official capacity will be a violation of @PMOIndia's constitutional oath. Secularism is part of the Basic Structure of Constitution," AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi wrote on Twitter today.
It needs mention here that Ram Janmabhoomi is the name given to the site that is hypothesized to be the birthplace of Rama. The Ramayana states that the location of Rama's birthplace is on the banks of the Sarayu river in a city called "Ayodhya".
The area to build the temple -- the cause of a long-running dispute between Hindus and Muslims -- was handed over to a trust by a 5-judge bench of the Supreme Court in November of 2019. The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra trust began the first phase of construction of the Ram Temple in March 2020.
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