New Delhi: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not attend the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on August 5 as Prime Minister.

“I have said in an interview to Outlook magazine that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not attend that event. Because if he attends that function as the Prime Minister then a message will go in the country that the Prime Minister is supporting people of one faith only,” Owaisi said.

“If he says he is going to attend the event in his individual capacity, then nobody will question it. Every Prime Minister, if he follows a religion, he has the right to follow it. But Prime Minister is also constitutional head and the Constitution is related to the basic structure of secularism,” Owaisi told ANI.

Owaisi tweeted:

Attending Bhumi Pujan in official capacity will be a violation of @PMOIndia‘s constitutional oath. Secularism is part of the Basic Structure of Constitution

We can’t forget that for over 400 years Babri stood in Ayodhya & it was demolished by a criminal mob in 1992 https://t.co/qt2RCvJOK1

— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) July 28, 2020

He said the PM “should say that he will go in his personal capacity and no TV channel should live telecast”.

“There is no religion of the country. Do India and the Government of India have a religion? He is the Prime Minister of Muslims, Hindus, Dalits, Backwards, Sikhs, Christians, and those also who do not believe in any faith,” the Hyderabad MP said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya on August 5, according to Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, the president of the Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust.

The construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya will begin after the ceremony to lay the foundation stone (bhoomi poojan) in which chief ministers of many states, ministers from the union cabinet and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat are also likely to participate.

The Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust, set up in accordance with the Supreme Court verdict, held its second meeting earlier this month. In March this year, the ‘Ram Lalla’ idol was shifted to a temporary structure.

The apex court, on November 9 last year, had directed the central government to hand over the site at Ayodhya for the construction of a Ram temple. (ANI)