PM Modi to inaugurate redeveloped station, new airport in Ayodhya
Ayodhya (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Ayodhya on Saturday during which he will inaugurate a redeveloped station and a newly-built airport in the temple town.
He is also expected to lay the foundation stones for a slew of development projects in Uttar Pradesh.
To welcome the prime minister, the holy city has been decked up with flowers, murals and thematic ornamental columns amid heavy security deployment. Huge posters with images of Modi have been put up at prominent locations here, while cut-outs of Lord Ram have been installed outside the redeveloped railway station.
Elaborate security arrangements have been made along the Ram Path to the Ayodhya airport, located about 15 km from the main city.
Devotional songs dedicated to Lord Ram played out on the streets here on Saturday morning while ringing of bells and holy chants at several temples filled the air.
"The prime minister is expected to reach Ayodhya airport around 10.45 am. After landing at the airport, he will head to the Ayodhya railway station where he will inaugurate the redeveloped railway station. He will then return to the airport, inaugurate the newly-bult airport and subsequently address a 'jan sabha' (public rally)," Gaurav Dayal, Divisional Commissioner of Ayodhya, told PTI on Friday.
About 1.5 lakh people are expected to assemble for the rally that will last nearly an hour, after which the prime minister will depart from Ayodhya, he added.
In a statement on Friday, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's office said during Modi's visit, more than 1,400 performers will present folk art and cultural programmes in a total of 40 stages set up along the route from the airport to the railway station.
The prime minister would hold a roadshow while travelling from the airport to the railway station and acknowledge the greetings of the people of Ayodhya, sources had earlier said.
He is expected to spend about three hours here.
At around 11.15 am, Modi will inaugurate the redeveloped Ayodhya railway station and flag off new Amrit Bharat trains and Vande Bharat trains, the PMO said in a statement on Thursday, adding, he will also dedicate several other railway projects to the nation.
At around 12.15 pm, the prime minister will inaugurate the newly-built Ayodhya airport. He would later participate in a public programme where he would inaugurate and lay the foundation stones of multiple development projects worth more than Rs 15,700 crore in the state, the statement said.
"The phase-1 of the state-of-the-art airport has been developed at a cost of more than Rs 1,450 crore. The airport's terminal building will have an area of 6,500 square metres, equipped to serve about 10 lakh passengers annually," it said.
The interiors of the terminal building have been decorated with local art, paintings and murals depicting the life of Lord Ram.
This visit by the prime minister comes just ahead of the 'pran pratishtha' or consecration ceremony of the Ram temple here.
A grand Ram temple is currently under construction here, with the consecration ceremony to be held on January 22, which will be attended by the prime minister.
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Questioning religious practices will break religion, civilisation: SC in Dawoodi Bohras case
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Thursday remarked that if individuals start questioning certain religious practices or matters of religion before a constitutional court then there will be hundreds of petitions questioning different rituals, leading to the breaking of religions and the civilisation.
The nine-judge Constitution bench is hearing petitions related to discrimination against women at religious places, including the Sabarimala temple in Kerala, and on the ambit and scope of the religious freedom practised by multiple faiths, including Dawoodi Bohras.
The bench comprises Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices B V Nagarathna, M M Sundresh, Ahsanuddin Amanullah, Aravind Kumar, Augustine George Masih, Prasanna B Varale, R Mahadevan and Joymalya Bagchi.
The Central Board of Dawoodi Bohra Community filed a PIL in 1986 seeking the setting aside of a 1962 judgment, which had struck down the Bombay Prevention of Excommunication Act, 1949 -- this law made excommunication of any community member illegal.
The 1962 Constitution bench judgment said, "It is evident from the religious faith and tenets of the Dawoodi Bohra community that the exercise of the power of excommunication by its religious head on religious grounds formed part of the management of its affairs in matters of religion and the 1949 Act in making even such excommunication invalid, infringed the right of the community under Article 26(b) of the Constitution."
Senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, representing a group of reformist Dawoodi Bohras, submitted that a practice which is conducted in response to secular and social actions of an individual cannot be the subject of Constitutional protection under Article 25 of the Constitution and consequently cannot be a ‘matter of religion’ under Article 26 of the Constitution.
Ramachandran told the court that a practice which may have a religious aspect but also significantly and adversely impacts fundamental rights is not immune to restriction under Article 25 of the Constitution or Article 26 of the Constitution.
Responding to the submission, Justice Nagarathna said that if everybody starts questioning certain religious practices or matters of religion before a constitutional court, then "what happens to this civilisation where religion is so intimately connected with the Indian society".
"There will be hundreds of petitions questioning this right that right, opening of the temple, and the closure of the temple. We are conscious of this," she said.
Adding to the response, Justice Sundresh said, "Every religion will break and every constitutional court will have to be closed.
"If the dispute between two entities are allowed then everybody will question everything. In your case there may be a civil wrong committed to you but in another case, another member will say I don't agree. It is regressive. To what extent can we go in a country like ours which is progressive and on the move is the question," he said.
Justice Nagarathna went on that what sets apart India from any other region is that "we are a civilisation" despite having so many pluralities and diversities?
Asserting that diversity is the country's strength, she added, "One of the constants in our Indian society is the relationship of human beings -- man, woman and child -- with the religion."
"Now, how a religious practice or a matter of religion is questioned, where it is questioned, whether it can be questioned, whether it has to be a question within a denomination for a reform or whether the state will have to do or you want the court to adjudicate upon all these aspects. This is troubling us.
"What we lay down, is for a civilisation that is India. India must progress despite all its economy, everything there is a constant in us. We can’t break that constant. That is what is troubling us ," she said.
Ramachandran replied that India is a civilisation under the Constitution and therefore nothing which goes against the grain of constitution can be continued in a civilised society.
He said that's where court's task come in and "it can't throw hands" and say there will be so many petitions.
