'Will visit post construction', says Sharad Pawar declining Pran Pratishtha invite

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar has been invited to the pran pratishtha ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22. Pawar, in a letter to Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra's General Secretary Champat Rai, expressed his intent to skip the consecration event but committed to visiting for darshan after the construction is completed.

The letter written by the NCP chief reads, "After the pran pratistha ceremony is completed on January 22, I will freely take out time and come for darshan and by then the construction work of Ram temple will also be completed."

The NCP chief's decision aligns with concerns raised by the four Shankaracharyas, spiritual leaders in Hinduism, who announced their abstention from the ceremony, citing the incomplete status of the temple construction as a violation of sacred Hindu scriptures, the "shastras."

In a video statement, Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati, the 46th Shankaracharya of Uttarakhand's Jyotir Mutt, clarified that their decision is rooted in upholding shastra-vidhi, the prescribed rituals, and is not influenced by political motives.