Developed India push has begun in Ayodhya, says PM

India’s development march blends both the ancient and the modern, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday, adding that the race to build a developed India is getting new energy from Ayodhya, where he inaugurated a new railway station and airport ahead of the opening of the Ram temple.

- Pawan Dixit

In a public rally in the temple town, Modi asked the audience to light lamps in their homes on January 22 – the date of the inauguration of the Ram temple – and celebrate Deepawali, but requested that only those invited for the ceremony come to Ayodhya that day, and asked devotees to follow later.

Modi also inaugurated and laid the foundation stones of projects worth ₹15,700 crore across Uttar Pradesh, including an international airport in Ayodhya and the redeveloped Ayodhya Railway Station. He drank tea at the home of the 100th million beneficiary of the government’s flagship Ujjawala scheme, and hailed the transformative power of the “Modi guarantee” welfare outreach.

“Today, if we are seeing a celebration of progress, then a few days later, there will be a celebration of tradition a few days later. If today we see the magnificence of development, then we’ll see the divinity of heritage a few days later. This is India. This combined strength of development and heritage will put India ahead of everyone else in the 21st century,” Modi said.

“No country in the world that is developed has ignored its heritage…the race to make India a developed nation has received new energy from Ayodhya,” he added.

The PM’s high-profile visit came roughly three weeks before the formal inauguration of the Ram temple, a three-storey structure whose construction began after the Supreme Court’s landmark 2019 verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case. The temple, considered a key issue of faith for millions of people in the heartland, is also expected to be a major electoral issue for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the general elections next summer.