“I will return to Ayodhya.. when the construction of Ram Mandir will begin”: PM Modi arrives in Ayodhya after 29 years

The entire country is in euphoria as the foundation stone for the Grand Ram Temple is set to be laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

People are reminiscing about the Rama Janmabhoomi Movement that happened in the 1980-90s and the leaders who participated in it.

A photo taken in 1991 when the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Ayodhya Ram Janma Bhoomi with BJP senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi has gone viral on social media.

Narendra Modi with Murli Manohar Joshi

The photo is said to have been taken by Mahendra Tripathi, who ran a studio near Rama Janma Bhoomi.

In an interview with the Times of India, he had said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi came here in 1991 with senior leader Murli Manohar Joshi (Rama Janmabhoomi). I was the only photographer working for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Ayodhya at the time, so I had the rare opportunity to photograph both of them.”

Tripathi said that Murli Manohar Joshi had introduced Narendra Modi as the BJP leader from Gujarat amongst some local journalists who were present at the time.

When journalists asked Modi about when he would return to Ayodhya, Modi supposedly said “I will be back when the construction of the Ram Temple begins”.

And destiny has made him to keep his word.

He has returned to Ayodhya as the Prime Minister of India to lay down the foundation stone for the grand Ram Mandir.