Lucknow: A day after he lit up Ayodhya with the ‘Deepotsav’ event where 3.5 lakh earthen lamps were lit, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath declared that, “In Ayodhya there was a temple, there is a temple and a temple will always remain there”.
The chief minister made this statement after offering prayers at the makeshift Ram Lalla temple in Ayodhya on Diwali.
Yogi Adityanath celebrated Diwali at the holy city and said that all options were open but he would prefer a solution to the Ram temple-Babri Masjid dispute within the legal and constitutional framework.
The chief minister also assured that a grand statue of Lord Ram would be built in Ayodhya which will give the holy city its unique identity and also put it firmly on the international tourist map.
Sharing details of the proposed statue, he said that the project was very much on and the search for appropriate land was in progress. Talks with architects had also started.
Clarifying the confusion of the saints, Yogi Adityanath said that this proposed statue was to be a tourist attraction while the one for worship would be inside the Ram temple whenever it comes up.
Later , the chief minister visited Maniram Chavni the seat of Mahant Nrityagopal Das ( the acting president of Ram Janambhoomi Nyas) , where he held a meeting with a cross section of saints of Ayodhya including Dr Ram Vilas Vedanti.
Sources claim that during the meeting with saints, the chief minister managed to pacify them and also convinced them of the government’s commitment to build the Ram temple.
