Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday laid a 40-kg silver brick for ground-breaking ceremony of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya as millions of people all over the world watched the event that is a culmination of BJP’s 36-year-long campaign, one that propelled them to power and changed the country’s socio-political equations.

Clad in a saffron kurta and off-white dhoti, Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed the 15-minute ritual amid chants of Jai Shri ram. The event came nine months after the Supreme Court verdict that was a culmination of one of the longest running court battles in independent India.

For the Bharatiya Janata party, the day that will go down in history as momentous, comes three decades after its leader LK Advani in 1984 decided to take up the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. The decision became a full-fledged campaign in 1989 and immediately bore results for the party, which took its tally from two to 85 in 1989 Lok Sabha elections. Advani, the architect of the movement, watched his dream come true via live telecast.

Live updates: Ayodhya Ram Temple ground breaking ceremony

With the Prime Minister were Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat, Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Mahant Nritya Gopaldas. The guest list was kept lean to ensure social distancing in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Only 175 people were invited to the event, all residents of Ayodhya. The first invite went to Iqbal Ansari, son of one of the Muslim litigants in the Ayodhya case.

Before the bhumi pujan, PM Modi offered prayers at Hanumangarhi temple, which was sanitised ahead of the visit, and was presented with a silver crown. After Hanuman puja, he reached the makeshift temple at Ram Janmabhoomi where he did a ‘shashtang pranam’ (lying prostrate) before the deity. He then planted a Parijaat (night-flowering jasmine) sapling at the site.

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The event was preceded by several BJP leader taking to micro-blogging platform Twitter to express their best wishes and happiness. Indians all over the world celebrated the event with special prayers. In New York’s Times Square Times Square, images of Lord Ram and 3D portraits of the Ayodhya temple will be beamed to commemorate the momentous occasion, said prominent community leader and president of the American India Public Affairs Committee Jagdish Sehwani.