Ram temple inauguration: CNN-News18 hosts 100-hour show, PVR, Aaj Tak to livestream event

PVR INOX has partnered with news station Aaj Tak to live-stream the consecration event at Ayodhya's Ram temple on Monday, January 22. According to India Today, the ceremony will be live-streamed from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday on more than 160 PVR screens in 70 cities. Tickets for the showing can be obtained through BookMyShow or the PVR INOX website. Even though booking has not yet commenced, about 1700 people appear to have expressed interest in purchasing tickets for the show through BookMyShow in Bengaluru as of Saturday morning.

While moviegoers sometimes complain about the expensive prices of cinema tickets, food, and beverages, those wanting to watch the live broadcast of the temple inauguration not only obtain a ticket for Rs 100 for the four-hour event but also get complimentary popcorn.

It is not simply the Aaj Tak-PVR alliance that provides continuous coverage of the ceremony, which will feature Prime Minister Narendra Modi. CNN-News18 is airing a 100-hour special on the Ram temple inauguration called 'Ram Mandir for India'. In addition, News 18 will have a conclave on Lord Ram in Lucknow on Saturday, the News Minute reported.

The 100-hour programme, which began on Friday, January 19, will continue until the night of January 22. The channel's anchors would not only host live programming from Ayodhya, but also interview 'experts', 'historians', and religious leaders. The 'histories' that will be given at these ceremonies are unlikely to include the story of the Babri Masjid, on which site the temple has been built.

On December 6, 1992, kar sevaks from Hindu majoritarian outfits demolished the Babri Masjid, which was built by Mir Baqi, commander of Mughal Emperor Babur, in 1528. The demolition, which occurred as part of a systematic Ram Janmabhoomi effort, sparked months of communal violence that killed over 2,000 people. The Babri Masjid has been a source of contention since 1885 when religious leaders and Hindutva groups claimed it was Ram Janambhoomi or Lord Ram's birthplace in Ayodhya.

In 1950, Gopal Visharad Sharma filed a lawsuit in the Faizabad district court, claiming the right to worship Ram Lalla statues that had been put there in 1949. On September 30, 2010, the High Court ruled in favour of a three-way division of the disputed area among the Sunni Waqf Board, Nirmohi Akhara, and Ram Lalla by a 2:1 majority.

Nine years later, in 2019, the Supreme Court handed the entire 2.77 acres of contested land to the deity Ram Lalla and directed the Uttar Pradesh government to allocate five acres of land to Muslims for the construction of a mosque. Though the Supreme Court described the mosque's demolition as "an egregious violation of the rule of law," the decision was attacked for embracing the logic of "faith over fact" and awarding legal title of land to those responsible for the demolition.