Green adds to Saffron celebrations of Ram Temple bhoomi poojan in Karnataka's coast

MANGALURU/UDUPI: If saffron was the hue that dominated the coastal districts that is widely in the forefront of Hindu cause on a day Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed bhoomi pujan for Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, environmentalist Ashok Bhat added a touch of green to it at Belman near here on Wednesday.
Bhat with friend Deepak Kamath planted four saplings of different varieties of mango and one jackfruit on his sprawling plantation there.
Bhat reasoned that if the nation took up this green cause on every national event like the one in Ayodhya on the day, there will be no better way to serve Mother Earth. The four mango saplings are indigenous to the region, Bhat told TOI. As these saplings grow and one day yield fruits, he will be reminded of a very special time in Indian history that many devouts had waited for years. Now the challenge lies in rearing the saplings, Bhat said.
Elsewhere, the regional VHP office in Mangaluru that was reverberating to mellifluous ‘Ram Bhajans’ had a special visitor in state BJP chief Nalin Kumar Kateel and Mangaluru City South MLA D Vedavyas Kamath. Nalin said the moment PM Modi laid the foundation stone for the temple is both historic and memorable. “This is also the day that the long-standing pledge of BJP (to construct a magnificent temple for Lord Ram) was achieved,” he said.
For journalist P B Hariprasad Rai, it was a trip down memory lane of having been ‘jailed’ in a school that was converted into a temporary ‘jail’ to house kar sevaks who participated in the Ram Janma Bhoomi movement in 1990. Fresh out of college then as a 21-year-old strapping youth, Rai went to Ayodhya in a train with now MLC Pratapsimha Nayak, former MLC Anna Vinay Chandra. “Those days and incidents are still fresh in my mind,” Rai said.
Elsewhere, members of Sangh Parivar braving heavy rains lashing the region celebrated the bhoomi pooja by releasing saffron coloured balloons from the coast at Chitrapura, in front of Sri Venkataramana Temple in the city, with special pooja in temples at Puttur and Sullia. The fervour saw even Sullia Block Congress Committee members offer special pooja at the Sri Chennakeshava Temple. A huge rangoli of the proposed Ram Temple was drawn in the city.