iNDICA NEWS BUREAU
A priest who had shared the stage with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 5 has tested positive for Covid-19, Indian media reported Thursday.
Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, chief of Ram Janmabhoomi trust in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh was one of five people on stage with Modi during the bhoomi pujan (rituals to mark beginning of construction) for the Ram temple at the site in Ayodhya where Hindutva mobs had demolished a hundreds of years old mosque December 6, 1992.
The Ayodhya Ram temple movement is what made the BJP a national party to reckon with in India. The August 5 moment marked a peak in the pro-Hindutva push the BJP has given India.
Days before August 5, another priest and a number of police personnel guarding the Ayodhya had site had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
India’s health ministry Thursday said it had recorded a record single-day increase of 66,999 cases of Covid-19, a new record for the country that is one of the worst-hit nations in the pandemic.
