Iqbal Ansari, a litigant in the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case, on Friday, received an invitation for the consecration ceremony at the upcoming Ram temple in Ayodhya and said he will attend the grand event.
"This is Ayodhya nagari, it is a city of religion, deities of Hindu and Muslim communities are present here. There is brotherhood and unity among the Hindus and Muslims of Ayodhya and there is no unease. Whether it is a temple, a mosque or a gurdwara, there is no discrimination. There is a feeling of harmony for those coming to Ayodhya," he said. The invitation was hand-delivered to him at his house in Kotia Panjitola near the Ram Path.
More than a lakh devotees are expected to descend on the temple town on the occasion of 'pran pratishtha' on January 22. According to sources, the invitee list has around 7,000 guests from India and abroad.
Ansari, in his late 50s, on December 31 told PTI in an interview that the Muslim community respected the 2019 verdict of the Supreme Court on the Ram temple issue.
Settling a fractious issue that goes back more than a century, the apex court in a historic verdict backed the construction of a Ram temple by a trust at the disputed site in Ayodhya and ruled that an alternative five-acre plot must be found for a mosque in the Hindu holy town.
Asked about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's tenure, he said, "Under the PM's tenure, we are getting to see the ethos of 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas'... I will congratulate him for 'vikas' (development) of Ayodhya".
The invitation cover bears his name in Hindi -- "Shri Iqbal Ansari Ji, Ayodhya (Awadh Prant)". It was delivered to him by a representative of the temple trust.
"Because, we have been visiting 'Math-Mandir' earlier also, and today also we visit... I was invited to the 'bhoomipujan' ceremony too, and now 'pran pratishtha' is going to take place, and I have been invited to that (function) as well," he said, adding, "I will go" to the event.
Modi on August 5, 2020, performed the 'bhoomipujan' ceremony in Ayodhya, and a month before the 'pran pratishtha', he visited the temple town on December 30 during which he held a roadshow, inaugurated the redeveloped Ayodhya railway station and the newly-built airport.
Saints and seers had showered floral petals as Modi's carcade passed through Ram Path, as did many other commoners, and among them was Ansari. "This is our tradition. We welcome guests who come to our city," he had earlier said.
Ansari's father Hashim Ansari, who died in 2016 in his late 90s, was one of the main litigants in the Ayodhya case till his demise.
While much has changed in Ayodhya since the landmark verdict, the Ram temple issue and the history of the dispute continue to weigh on the minds of many people.
Ansari feels the contentious issue had "practically ended" more than 30 years ago when the 16th-century mosque was brought down.
On December 6, 1992, a frenzied mob of kar sewaks gathered in the holy town from different parts of the country and demolished the mosque, triggering communal violence in many parts of the country.
The dispute over the site of Babri Masjid, a three-domed mosque built by or at the behest of Mughal emperor Babur in 1528, dates back centuries with Hindus contending that the invading Muslim armies had razed an existing Ram temple to erect the mosque, a claim rejected by Muslims.
