Ram Mandir inauguration: 100 odd guests from 53 countries invited

New Delhi: An American doctor who advocated for the approval of Narendra Modi's visa in early 2014, a Norwegian MP, a scientist from New Zealand, an industrialist from Fiji, and saints who founded Hindu schools in the Caribbean. These are a few of the approximately one hundred foreign guests invited to the inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on January 22.

The VHP guest list for the event includes people from up to 53 different nations, including the US, the UK, Europe, Australia, and Africa.

Nearly a third of the guest list's invites have been sent to US residents, which is the largest percentage. Five individuals from Hong Kong, three from South Korea, Malaysia, and the UK, and two each from Germany and Italy have been invited, Indian Express reported.

Each of the other nations has one invitee.

Dr Bharat Barai, who lobbied with the US government to approve Modi's visa in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, is among the important guests. Up until then, the US government had put a 10-year travel ban on the BJP leader.

Being an ardent supporter of the BJP, Dr Barai has had numerous party leaders over to his US home. He has also worked to improve ties between India and Israel.

“We wanted to invite key officials from other countries too. In some cases, there were PMs and other senior dignitaries from foreign governments who were on the list. However, the Central administration advised against it given the security protocol required for such a guest list. Maybe a separate visit for such dignitaries will be organised later,” said Swami Vigyananand, joint general secretary of the VHP.

In addition to overseeing VHP's international affairs, Vigyananand serves as the World Hindu Foundation's global chairman. Vigyananand claims that Hindus all around the world are quite excited about the occasion. He noted that numerous important government officials in other nations had contacted the VHP to express their wish to attend the function, but they had to be graciously turned down.

Dr Abhay Asthana, a fellow at Nokia Bell Labs-CTO in Indiana and president of the World Hindu Council of America, sometimes referred to as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, is another important invitee from the US.

A prominent figurehead for the Hindu community in Scandinavia will be Himanshu Gulati, a Progress Party MP from Norway who previously held a position in the prime minister's office. Prof. Guna Magesan, a scientist and academic from New Zealand who also serves as the general secretary of the Hindu Council of New Zealand, will represent the Indian diaspora at the event.

Jai Dayal, the owner of the largest steel production company in Fiji, will take part in the event. The nation has a significant Indian diaspora.

The guest list includes, among others, businessman Sathasivam from Sri Lanka, Hindu leaders from various countries in South Asia and beyond, Swami Prakashnanda, the founder and acharya of Chinmaya Mission in Trinidad and Tobago, Swami Aksharananda, the principal of the esteemed Saraswati Vidya Niketan (Private Hindu College) in Guyana, veteran VHP leaders Rameshbhai Jain from Germany and Vitthal Maheshwari from Italy, Subramaniam Ramamurthy, the VHP president in Australia, Ratan Garg from Canada.