Ayodhya Ram Mandir Invitations List: As the date for the inauguration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya draws near, anticipation is reaching a fever pitch, and the guest list for the historic ceremony promises a convergence of political, religious, and cultural luminaries. Prominent among the attendees is Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will be inaugurating the ‘pran prathistha’ (consecration) ceremony.
The ‘pran prathistha’ ceremony will take place on January 22, 2024 (Monday).
Not only seers and priests, but celebrities, sportpersons, industrialists, former and current administrative officers and journalists, who were posted in Ayodhya region around 1992, army officers to Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awardees among others, have also been invited to the grand ceremony that will take place in the temple town of Ayodhya.
The guest list will include President Droupadi Murmu, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, BJP stalwarts Murli Manohar Joshi, KL Advani, former Prime Minister and Congress leader Manmohan Singh, among others. Congress leaders including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Sonia Gandhi were also invited, however, they have declined to attend the event.
Sportspersons receive invite
The guest list is not confined to the political arena. Cricketing icon Sachin Tendulkar, chess grandmaster Viswanathan Anand, sprint queen PT Usha and footballer Bhaichung Bhutia are among the prominent sports personalities who are invited for the event.
World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev, ‘little master’ Sunil Gavaskar as well as Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Virendra Sehwag and Indian cricket coach Rahul Dravid are also invited.
From the current Indian cricket team, Ravindra Jadeja and Rohit Sharma have been invited.
Weightlifter Karnam Malleswari, footballer Kalyan Chaube, long-distance runner Kavita Raut Tungar and paralympic javelin thrower Devendra Jhanjadia have received an invitation. Women cricket captain Mitali Raj, shuttlers Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu and her trainer Pullela Gopichand have also been invited.
Bollywood, Tollywood stars receive invite
A galaxy of Bollywood stars have also been invited, including Amitabh Bachchan, Kangana Ranaut, Madhuri Dixit, Rajinikanth, Akshay Kumar, Alia Bhatt, and Ranbir Kapoor, among others. Bachchan will fly into Ayodhya in a private chartered plane on Monday for the event.
Renowned celebrities from the South Indian film industry, including Chiranjeevi, Prabhas, Dhanush, and Mohanlal, have also been invited, along with iconic figures from the Ramayana TV series, Arun Govil and Deepika Chikhalia Topiwala.
BJP MPS Hema Malini and Sunny Deol, Anupam Kher, directors Madhur Bhandarkar and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Chandraprakash Dwivedi,as well singers Shreya Ghoshal, Kailash Kher, Shankar Mahadevan, Anup Jalota, Sonu Nigam and Anuradha Paudwal have been invited.
Actors Arun Govil and Dipika Chikhlia, who portrayed Ram and Sita in Ramanand Sagar’s popular TV series “Ramayan”, are on the list too. Singer Malini Awasthi, sarod maestro Amjad Ali, musician Ilayaraja and family members of the late singing legend Lata Mangeshkar.
The invitees include regional artists such as Jahnu Barua, Kaushiki Chakraborty, Manju Borah, and Malcha Goswami. Poet Manoj Muntashir and his wife, and lyricist and writer Prasoon Joshi along with his wife are also on the invitees list.
Industrialists get invite
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani and his family, including his mother Kokilaben, wife Neeta, sons Akash and Anant, daughter-in-law Shloka and would-be-daughter-in-law Radhika Merchant are invited. Ratan N Tata, chairman emeritus of salt-to-software Tata Group, as well as Tata Sons chairperson N Chandrasekaran and wife Lalitha are on the list of invitees.
Business tycoon Gautam Adani too is on the list and so is mining mogul Anil Agarwal. Hinduja group’s Ashok Hinduja, Wipro’s Azim Premji, Nusli Wadia of Bombay Dyeing, Torrent group founder and chairperson Sudhir Mehta, GMR Group’s G M R Rao, and real estate baron Niranjan Hiranandani have received invitations too.
Other prominent industrialists invited include Aditya Birla Group chairperson Kumar Mangalam Birla and his wife Nirja, Piramal Group’s Ajay Piramal, Mahindra and Mahindra’s Anand Mahindra, DCM Shriram’s Ajay Shriram and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) CEO K Krithivasan.
Infosys head Nandan Nilekani and company co-founder TV Mohandas Pai. L&T chairperson and MD S N Subramaniam and wife as well as its former head A M Naik, vaccine-man and Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawala, Byju’s founder Byju Raveendran, LIC chairperson Siddharth Mohanti and SBI chairperson Dinesh Khara, National Stock Exchange (NSE) president Ashish Chauhan have also been invited.
ISRO chairperson S Somnath, DMRC principal advisor E Sreedharan, and NITI member V K Saraswat are also on the list.
Along with them, 10-15 per cent of workmen engaged in construction would also be given the invite.
Several international guests have also been invited for the January 22 event. They include a US-based oncologist, Dr Bharat Barai, who lobbied for visa clearance for Narendra Modi in early 2014, a senior fellow at the Nokia Bell Labs in Indiana Dr Abhay Asthana.
Himanshu Gulati, Norway MP representing the Progress Party who earlier worked in the office of the Norwegian Prime Minister, will be a key representative of the Hindu community from Scandinavia, has also been invited.
Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama has also been invited to the event.
(With PTI inputs)