With Lord Hanuman's blessings, 'bhumi pujan' will end 166-year-old dispute

Lord Hanuman is said to be the protector of Ayodhya and Ram devotees Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he comes to Ayodhya on Wednesday for bhumi pujan will first offer prayers at the Hanuman Garhi templeAccording to Mahant Raju Das chief priest of Hanuman Garhi temple The Prime Minister will offer prayers for about seven minutes at the Hanuman Garhi temple before he goes to the site for bhumi pujan A special puja has been arranged for him here The bhumi pujan rituals will actually begin at Hanuman Garhi from August 4 It is widely believed that before initiating any task one must offer prayers to Lord Hanuman and seek his protectionThe bhumi pujan on Wednesday will be a culmination of a dispute that lasted for nearly 166 yearsThe controversy over the temple began in 1853 After the construction of the mosque the Hindus alleged that the place where the mosque was built was earlier the temple of Lord Ram which had been demolished to construct the mosqueIn 1885 this case reached the court for the first time when Mahant Raghubar Das filed an appeal in the Faizabad court for permission to build a Ram temple adjacent to the Babri MasjidIn 1859 the British government erected a wire fence to allow separate prayers to Muslims and Hindus in the inner and outer premises of the disputed landA statue of Lord Rama was placed on this central site on December 23 1949 After this the Hindus started worshiping at the place regularly while Muslims stopped offering namaaz thereOn January 161950 Gopal Singh Visharad filed an appeal in the Faizabad court seeking special permission to worship Ram LallaA few months later on December 5 1950 Mahant Paramahansa Ram Chandra Das also filed a lawsuit to continue the Hindu prayers and keep the statue of Lord Rama in the disputed structureNine years later on December 171959 the Nirmohi Akhara filed a lawsuit to transfer the disputed site and on December 18 1961 the Sunni Waqf Board of Uttar Pradesh also filed a lawsuit seeking ownership of the Babri Masjid and removal of idols from mosque premisesIn 1984 the Vishwa Hindu Parishad VHP started a campaign to open the locks of the disputed structure A committee was also formed for the purposeOn February 1 1986 the Faizabad district judge KM Pandey allowed Hindus to worship at the disputed siteThe locks were reopened but this angered some of the Muslim organizations and they formed the Babri Masjid Action Committee to protestIn 1989 the Bhartiya Janata Party BJP announced formal support to the VHP thereby giving a new life to the temple movementIt was at this point that a massive movement for Ram temple began that in the years to come changed the complexion of national politicsOn July 1 1989 a fifth lawsuit was filed in the name of Lord Ramlala VirajamanThe then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on November 9 1989 allowed the shilanyas laying of foundation stone near the disputed structureAs the temple movement gained momentum in September 1990 the then BJP President Lal Krishna Advani embarked on a Rath yatra from Somnath in Gujarat to Ayodhya in Uttar PradeshAdvani was arrested in Samastipur Bihar by the Lalu Yadav governmentIn October 1991 the Kalyan Singh government in Uttar Pradesh acquired 277 acres of land near the disputed structure and gave it to Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas on leaseThe Allahabad High Court however ordered that no permanent structure would be built thereThe temple movement reached a crescendo on December 6 1992 when thousands of kar sevaks came together to Ayodhya and demolished the disputed structure which led to communal riots across the countryThis led to the dismissal of the BJP governments in Uttar Pradesh Madhya Pradesh Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh after the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992The Liberhan Commission was formed a few days later to investigate those responsible for provoking the demolition of the mosqueIn January 2002 Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee started a Ayodhya department in his office This departments job was to resolve the dispute between Hindus and MuslimsIn April the same year a threejudge bench began hearing on the ownership of the disputed site in AyodhyaThe Archaeological Survey of India started excavation in Ayodhya in 2003 under the instructions of the Allahabad High Court The ASI claimed that there was evidence of the temple remains under the disputed structure but the Muslims had different opinions about itIn September 2010 the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court delivered the historic verdict and divided the disputed land into three parts one part was given to the Ram temple the other to Sunni Waqf Board and Nirmohi Akhara got the thirdThe High Court decision was challenged in Supreme Court and after efforts to amicably resolve the dispute failed the apex court on November 9 2019 gave its verdict the disputed land shall be given to Hindus for the construction of a temple and a separate plot of 5 acres would be given to Muslims in Ayodhya for the construction of a mosqueThe court also asked the government to set up a Trust that would oversee temple constructionThe Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust was set up in February this year to initiate temple constructionHad it not been for the Corona pandemic and the national lockdown the temple construction would have started in April on Ram NavamiThe state government meanwhile has given five acres of land to Muslims in Dhannipur in AyodhyaCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest newsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute 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