“During Christmas, you put up a Christmas tree, right? Similarly, you install a model of the Ram Mandir in your mall. We’ll provide you with the model. You keep it there for fifteen days,” a man wearing a saffron shawl can be seen in a video telling the manager of Garuda Mall, located at the heart of the central business district of Bengaluru.
The man wearing the shawl is Anil Shetty, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but he tells TNM that he would like to be referred to as a Hindu Swayamsevak as he “does not wish to associate politics with the inauguration of the Ram Mandir.”
In the video shared by Anil himself, he, along with a group of “swayamsevaks,” can be seen telling the manager of Garuda Mall to set up a live screening of the inauguration of the mandir on January 22.
Anil tells TNM that they will be asking other malls in Bengaluru to do the same and Garuda Mall, which happens to be owned by BJP MLA Uday Garudachar, was the first mall they approached. In the coming days, the swayamsevaks led by Anil will be approaching other malls, such as Forum Mall, Orion and so on and ask them to set up live screenings of the Ram temple inauguration.
“This is an auspicious time for India. Malls in the country celebrate Christmas, right? So why can’t they do something for this important moment as well?” asks Anil, adding that they are not forcing malls to do this but are merely “requesting.”
The inauguration of the temple is scheduled to take place on January 22 and will see the participation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and other leaders of various political parties.
BJP units in several states have also made special arrangements for devotees visiting the temple after the consecration.
Babri Masjid, built by Mir Baqi, commander of Mughal emperor Babur in 1528, was demolished by kar sevaks belonging to Hindu majoritarian outfits on December 6, 1992. The demolition, which happened as a result of a concerted Ram Janmabhoomi movement, resulted in communal riots over months, which led to over 2,000 deaths. The Babri Masjid has been a contested site since 1885 as religious leaders and Hindutva outfits considered it to be Ram Janambhoomi or the birthplace of Lord Ram in Ayodhya.
A legal fight ensued in 1950 when Gopal Visharad Sharma approached Faizabad district court for the right to worship idols of Ram Lalla, which were placed there in 1949. On September 30, 2010, the High Court, in a 2:1 majority, ruled a three-way division of the disputed area between the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.
Nine years later, in 2019, the Supreme Court granted the entire 2.77 acres of disputed land to deity Ram Lalla and directed the Uttar Pradesh government to allot five acres of land to Muslims for building a mosque. Though the Supreme Court referred to the mosque's demolition as "an egregious violation of the rule of law," the verdict was criticised for accepting the logic of "faith over fact" and granting legal possession of land to those responsible for the demolition.