Every Street Ayodhya: What RSS Plans For 22 January 2024

Around a thousand volunteers representing various RSS affiliates from all 45 regional units across India will be going door-to-door to distribute "akshat" (holy offering) to people and urging them to attend the celebrations at their nearest temple to mark the inauguration ceremony of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on 22 January.

The leaders of RSS, VHP, and the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust have initiated coordination meetings with their affiliate organisations, including the BJP, in their respective prant (provincial) units. Such meetings were recently organised in Kashi, Awadh, Braj, Meerut prants (in Uttar Pradesh), and Uttarakhand prant.

Champat Rai, the general secretary of the Ram Temple trust and international vice president of the VHP, organised a meeting of the Kashi prant in Varanasi on 29 October.

In a similar vein, Anil Mishra, a member of the trust, spoke at the Awadh prant meeting in Lucknow earlier this week, while a senior VHP leader recently addressed the Uttarakhand prant meeting virtually.

“Since prominent temples are located across Uttarakhand, which is mostly hilly, we will require more than 1,000 workers to distribute akshat, organise the puja and also the live-streaming (of the consecration ceremony) at these temples on January 22,” an RSS functionary in Dehradun was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

On Sunday, almost 200 VHP and RSS volunteers at Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya will receive brass urns containing akshat, a mixture of rice grains, turmeric, and ghee. After receiving the offering, they will depart for their respective prant headquarters.

Each prant will receive 5 kg of akshat, which they will transport to their respective prant headquarters for distribution. They will then mix additional rice and turmeric into the akshat.

From 1 to 15 January, the akshat will be distributed door-to-door, according to a member of the temple trust cited in the IE report.

"Our target is to also have 5 crore households light diyas,” the trust member said, adding that the plan was “to turn the whole country into Ayodhya, with such programmes at over 5 lakh temples”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, along with over 4,000 sants and 2,500 eminent citizens, will attend the 'prana pratishtha' ceremony in Ayodhya on 22 January.

Volunteers from various prants affiliated with the RSS will also be visiting the Ram temple.

On 30 January, around 25,000 volunteers from the Kashi region are scheduled to visit Ayodhya.

In addition, the BJP leaders in Ayodhya have been given the responsibility of carrying out "sewa karya" or service work.

“We have started making a list of social organisations that would distribute free food starting January 1. The party’s medical cell is finalising a list of doctors to provide medical assistance to devotees and volunteers,” a BJP functionary in Ayodhya said.