Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman sharply criticised the Tamil Nadu government over reports of its decision to ban live streaming of the worship being performed at the new Ram temple. Her post on X was slammed by the state government, which accused the BJP of trying to “divert attention” from  the DMK youth Congress in Salem.

Declaring that there are more than 200 temples dedicated to Lord Ram in the state, Ms Sitharaman said the police are stopping privately held temples also from organising events.
 
“They are threatening organisers that they will rip off pandals. Strongly condemn this anti-Hindu, hateful action,”she said in  a post on X, formerly Twitter, and enclosed the news clipping.

TN govt has banned watching live telecast of #AyodhaRamMandir programmes of 22 Jan 24. In TN there are over 200 temples for Shri Ram. In HR&CE managed temples no puja/bhajan/prasadam/annadanam in the name of Shri Ram is allowed. Police are stopping privately held temples also… pic.twitter.com/G3tNuO97xS

— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) January 21, 2024

The DMK government has denied the newspaper report, which claims oral instructions From the government barred special pujas and serving free food in the name of Ram in temples. Calling it a “motivated report to bring disrepute to the state government,” the government has said it would take legal action against the newspaper.

In a press release, the state government added that under MK Stalin’s rule, the HR & CE department has held “consecration of 1,270 temples,” served  free food daily in 764 temples. It has also restored 197 ancient temples, many of which are a thousand years old,  at a cost of nearly 300 crore”.
“Hindu believers in Tamil Nadu know this, even the opposition can’t deny,” it added.

“The Hindu religious and Charitable Endowments department hasn’t imposed any limitations of devotees’ freedom to offer food, conduct poojas in the name of Shri Ram or provide prasad in Tamil Nadu temples,” PK Sekar Babu, the state’s minister Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments, said in a post on X.

“It is unfortunate that people in office, like Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and others, are purposefully propagating this erraneous information, his statement read.

pic.twitter.com/BuMjSEHAun

— P.K. Sekar Babu (@PKSekarbabu) January 21, 2024

Prime Minister Narendra Modi – who is in Tamil Nadu today – will be in Ayodhya tomorrow, where he would participate in the consecration of the new Ram Temple. The mega event will be attended by more than 6,000 people, including politicians and celebrities.

PM Modi has offered prayers to several temples in Tamil Nadu today.

Amid last-minute preparations for the consecration ceremony at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, chairman of the temple construction committee Nripendra Misra has responded to the criticism by Hindu religious leaders Shankaracharyas and their decision to stay away from the event.

Shankaracharyas are pontiffs of four mutts in four corners of the country — Uttarakhand in the north, Odisha in the east, Karnataka in the south and Gujarat in the west. They are considered the tallest leaders of Hindu faith.

While two of them have spoken out against the way the consecration ceremony is being organised and have said they won’t attend it, the other two have been silent. Explaining why they won’t be attending the event, leaders of the mutts in Odisha’s Puri and Uttarakhand’s Joshimath have flagged several points. They have said the pran pratistha should not be held before the temple construction is complete. They have also questioned why the Prime Minister will be inside the sanctum sanctorum when the Shankaracharyas have been allotted seats outside it. The event, they have alleged, is being given a political angle.

Responding to the controversy in an exclusive chat with NDTV, Mr Misra said, “Shankaracharyas are dharm gurus. I am no one. They are responsible for the observants of Sanatan Dharma. Having said so, I want to give a message to the nation”.

“What we had announced was that Ram Lalla, the child Ram, will be in bhootal (the temple’s ground floor). The bhootal will have the garba griha (sanctum sanctorum), five mandaps, (religious) iconography. That has been completed,” Mr Misra explained.

What remains incomplete is the first floor, he said. “The first floor is Ram Darbar. It’s where Raja Ram comes, where he sits with Sita. On the first floor, you will have Ram, Sita, Laxman and Hanuman,” he said.

A retired IAS officer, Mr Misra served as principal secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi from 2014 to 2019. Following his retirement and in the aftermath of the Supreme Court judgment that cleared the path for the temple’s construction, Mr Misra was appointed chairman of the construction committee in 2020.

Speaking to NDTV, Mr Misra also listed the itinerary for tomorrow and explained step-by-step how a devotee would proceed towards ‘darshan’ of Lord Ram after she enters the temple.

The Hamas group said Sunday the October 7 attacks that led to war with Israel were a “necessary step” but “chaos” had led to “faults” in the operation.

The attacks were “a necessary step and a normal response to confront all Israeli conspiracies against the Palestinian people”, the group said in its first public account about October 7, adding that “maybe some faults happened during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’s implementation due to the rapid collapse of the Israeli security and military system, and the chaos caused along the border areas with Gaza”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)