The coronavirus threatened to overshadow the basic rite of the Ram Temple on Monday with a time when the priest tested for the infection and the administration expressed fear that local citizens were violating social estrangement patterns.
Satyendra Das, a leading priest of Ram’s improvised temple in Ayodhya, showed HT that Prem Kumar Tiwari, a component of the team performing the rituals at the site of Ram Janmabhoomi, had tested positive for Covid.
“Of course, this is troubling. We all remain in the same domain in the temple. I have other situations too and I’m a young man,” said the 82-year-old man.
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Last week, another young priest named Pradeep Das from the same team tested positive for infection and everyone in contact with him was quarantined. Four other managers also tested positive.
But senior district officials downplayed the priest’s infection. “We have tested a large number of people and we are taking each and every precaution. I don’t think there’s any threat in this event,” said a senior state government official on anonymity status.
“We had all the primary festivals: Ram Navami in April, we celebrated the Eid, so why couldn’t we celebrate?”, said Prakash Sharma, senior official of Ram Mandir Teerth Kshetra Trust.
Fears of coronavirus can also alienate a key guest, Uttar Pradesh’s Sunni Central Council President Zafar Ahmad Faruqi.
“Yes, the president won an invitation. However, he returned from Ayodhya where the earth’s papers were passed and since then he has not felt well. It’s not a crown most likely because it’s been operated on, but it probably wouldn’t be traveling, said Faruqi spokesman Athar Hussain.
The state government asked others not to come to Ayodhya and asked local officials to seal the district’s borders from Monday night. However, there are considerations that estrangement protocols will not be followed through local citizens in a city with 604 active instances and 16 deaths.
A letter published through District Justice Anuj Jha expressed fear that many other people who huddled in the ghat Ram Ki Paidi on the banks of the Saryu River would not wear a mask and push themselves.
To combat this, the DM ordered that from 2 p.m. on Tuesday the entire domain would be closed to the public and only those accredited to be provided in the domain would be allowed to enter. The MS said this action was mandatory so that non-mandatory crowds would not gather in the domain.
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