Journalists and press photographers who were covering Joshi’s visit now recall that while the BJP chief, who had taken a detour from his regular route of the yatra, came out of the ‘Ram Janmabhoomi’ after darshan, the convener of the yatra stood for a few minutes with folded hands. “It appeared as if he was striking a conversation with the deity of taking a vow,” recalls Rajendra Tripathi, who used to run Ram Janmabhoomi studio near the structure, and was authorised by the administration to click pictures there.
Tripathi and other news photographers clicked his picture, but couldn’t identify this low-profile bearded person in his mid 40s. When he came out, the scribes egged him on to explain the reason for his ‘extended darshan’. The man reluctantly shared that he would now return to Ayodhya only when all hurdles in the construction of Ram temple were removed.
Then they asked his name. It was Narendra Modi from Gujarat. He had also accompanied LK Ad vani on his ‘Somnath to Ayodhya’ yatra less than two years ago.
Tripathi, who has been invited by the Temple Trust to attend the consecration ceremony on Jan 22, and other two photo journalists who were present there say that PM Modi kept his word and waited. He returned to Ayodhya only after 28 years — in Aug 2020 — to perform the bhoomi pujan of Ram temple. He will be back again in the temple town as the ‘main yajman’ at the pran pratishtha ceremony.
“Coincidentally, Joshi and Modi reached Ayodhya on Jan 14, 1992 — which was the annual anniversary of Prakatosav of Ram Lalla as per the Hindu calendar (The lord’s idol first appeared at the Janmabhoomi site on Dec 23, 1949),” recalled Rajendra Soni, who worked with a Hindi daily then. Soni now reports for Doordarshan/AIR in Ayodhya.
“Back then, no one knew who Narendra Modi was,” recalls Vipin Singh, another press photographer present there. “Many of us realised his stature in the party when he was appointed Gujarat CM in 2001,” Tripathi added.
“There are a few people whose dreams get fulfilled and Modi is one of them,” said Soni.
“When he returned to Ayodhya for bhoomi pujan of Ram temple, he had not just come as the PM but as a devotee who had taken the pledge for Ram Lalla’s temple,” said Tripathi, who now has a photo studio in the temple town. He was also a witness in the Babri demolition case, probed by the CBI.