The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: Even as four important Shankaracharyas have said they won’t go to the ceremony at Ayodhya where the PM is the “chief host” and continued to call the consecration ceremony being planned on January 22 as being about “politicisation”, being done before time and not in accordance with shastras as they read them, the Nirmohi Akhada, one of the most important akhadas in this context, which was one of the key petitioners in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid Title suit, spanning over a century has raised serious objections. It has said that the ‘Ramanandi’ traditions in the proposed consecration ceremony at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22 are not being followed.
A senior Mahant of Nirmohi Akhada is reported by Deccan Herald, among other outlets to have said that the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Khestra Trust, “did not follow the 500 year old traditions in worshipping and observing the rituals in the proposed consecration.”
‘The puja of the Ram Lala is done in accordance with the Ramanandi tradition but the Trust is following a mixed tradition, which is not proper,” the Mahant said. ”We want the rituals and worship of Ram Lala to continue in accordance with the Ramanandi traditions but the Trust has ignored our plea,” he continued.
He emphasised that the ’tilak’ and other symbols in the Ramanandi traditions were different from other sects. This sect has been responsible for conducting the prayers in the make-shift temple that has existed in Ayodhya since December 1992 and before that, on the Ram chabutra, the outer courtyard of the Babri masjid, when the mosque still stood.
The newspaper also reports that the Nirmohi Akhara had pleaded in the Supreme Court that it should also be given the right to hold puja and other rituals in the Ram Temple. The court had said that the Trust, which would look after the Ram Temple, might, if it wanted, give it the right.
Earlier, in an interview to Amar Ujala, the general secretary of the Temple Trust, Champat Rai, when asked about the method of worship in the new temple had said that since it’s a Ram temple, Ramanand tradition will be followed. “The temple belongs to the Ramanand sect, and not to the Sanyasis, not to Shaiva or Shakta,” he had said. This had created considerable distruct with Shankatracharyas openly asking why it was not being “handed over to the Ramanandi sect then”.
Shankaracharya Nishchalananda Saraswati, who had confirmed that he would not be going to Ayodhya for the January 22 event, criticised Rai’s remarks, advising him not to diminish his stature while holding a position of power.
No date for complete construction?
Rai had also said candidly that there was no end-date to when the temple construction would be completed, and that there’s no hurry to complete the construction work, as it took 18 months to build only the foundation.
“Earlier, the idea was that it would be built in 18 months… so, the foundation could be built in 18 months. The idea was that it would be built in three years. If we start from July 2020, then with 2023, three and a half years have passed. Now, if someone decides that it will be completed within a year, then after a year, he will have to tell that so much is still incomplete,” he told Amar Ujala.
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