VHP formally invites Advani, Joshi to attend Ram Temple consecration ceremony after row

Lucknow: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Tuesday extended a formal invitation to BJP veterans L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi to join the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22. The VHP's invite to the two leaders, who were pivotal in the Ram Temple movement, comes a day after the Ram Temple Trust's general secretary claimed that the two leaders had been asked to skip the ceremony owing to their old age.

In a statement posted on the X (formerly Twitter), the VHP, quoting its president Alok Kumar, said that the latter met the two leaders on Tuesday and invited them to attend the consecration ceremony in Ayodhya on January 22. ''Both the senior leaders said that they would try to attend the ceremony,'' the statement said.

The VHP's statement came a day after the general secretary of the Shree Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Khestra Trust, which was overseeing the construction of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya, said that Advani and Joshi had been requested not to come to Ayodhya to attend the ceremony in view of their old age.

''Lal Krishna Advani is 96 and Murli Manohar Joshi will soon turn 90....in view of their age and health they have been requested not to come to Ayodhya and they have agreed to our request,'' Champat Rai had said.

He had said that both leaders had been invited but the Trust had appealed to them not to come. ''It will be very cold during the time (January 22) which is not good for their health,'' Rai had remarked.

Rai also said that he had 'stopped' former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh from coming to Ayodhya on the occasion of the ceremony of the Ram Temple in view of his health, though the latter insisted on attending the event.

Advani had embarked upon a Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya in 1990 to galvanise support for the Ram Temple. The Yatra had triggered communal violence in parts of the country and the BJP leader had been arrested by the then Lalu Yadav government while his Yatra was in Bihar.