Know the man who got the first invite to Ram temple event at Ayodhya

Preparations are underway at Ayodhya, a day ahead of the bhoomi pujan ceremony for the Ram temple on Wednesday. Invited to attend the programme on August 5 are a host of senior BJP, RSS VHP leaders, who were associated with the decades-long Ram Temple movement, along with saints from across the country. But the first one to receive an invitation from the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust was Iqbal Ansari.

Iqbal Ansari is the son of late Hashim Ansari, who was the oldest litigant in the Babri case. Hashim, along with five others, had filed one of the first cases in the issue back in 1952 at the Faridabad civil court, which accused of “illegal encroachment of the masjid by the Hindu side.” He died in 2016, at the age of 96. Prior to this, he had nominated Iqbal Ansari to take the case ahead.

The protracted court battles concluded with the Supreme Court verdict in November 2019. The court ruled that the disputed land in Ayodhya would be handed over to a government-run trust for the construction of a Ram temple. It had also said that the demolition of Babri Masjid was illegal and directed the government to acquire an alternative plot of land to build a mosque.

Leaving the tumultuous history behind, Ansari has accepted the invite.

“Yes, I have received the invitation from Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust for the bhoomi pujan ceremony. I will certainly attend it. The dispute is over now after the court’s verdict,” Ansari, 69, told PTI.

He will also be gifting a ‘Ram nami’ stole and a copy of the Ramcharitmanas to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.

“I feel the city needs development. The future of our children should be safe and secure and they should get employment. The dispute in the name of religion should end now and we should let the city witness a new beginning,” he added.