Roll call of key faces invited for Ayodhya event: Infosys’ Murthy to Amitabh Bachchan, Neeraj Chopra to Kohli

Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy and his wife and author Sudha Murty, Olympic gold medallist Neeraj Chopra, Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu and former cricketer Venkatesh Prasad are among key dignitaries from various arenas such as industry and sports, who have been invited for the Ram Temple consecration ceremony to be held in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh on January 22.

Murthy is part of a guest list of industry luminaries for the Ayodhya ceremony, which includes Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani, Gautam Adani, Ratan Tata, Natarajan Chandrasekaran of the Tata Group, and S N Subrahmanyan of the L&T Group. Sources in the VHP said they have all given their consent to attend the event.

The inclusion of Murthy in this list is significant as a section in the Sangh Parivar was earlier gunning for Infosys, accusing it of allegedly funding “tukde tukde gang” in the country. In September 2021, a cover story done by the RSS-affiliated magazine Panchjanya alleged that Infosys India was trying to destabilise Indian economy even as it accused the information technology major of helping Naxals, leftists and “tukde tukde gang”.

Pointing to alleged funding by the Infosys of certain news portals seen as critical of the Narendra Modi-led BJP government and the RSS, Panchjanya had said the company stood accused of allegedly supporting divisive forces in the country. It had also claimed that the company had Marxists from Bengal in important posts, alleging that in such a situation there could be a threat of Chinese and ISI influence.

As a political furore erupted over the Panchjanya piece, the RSS distanced itself from the magazine, saying its article did not convey the Sangh’s views and that the magazine was not the organisation’s mouthpiece. The article did come as a surprise to many since only months ago that year, Sudha Murty, as the Infosys Foundation chairperson, had addressed an RSS event on the Covid issue.

While javelin champion Chopra is said to be currently training in South Africa, sources said Sindhu and Prasad will attend the Ram Temple consecration ceremony. The country’s cricketing icons such as Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are also among invitees for the event.

The guest list for the function includes people from a cross-section of professions. From politicians and ex-bureaucrats to film stars, artists, industrialists and sports personalities, it encompasses more than 2,000 prominent faces from various fields.

Apart from inviting the chiefs of all major political parties — including top Opposition leaders such as Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Mallikarjun Kharge, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary, Lalu Yadav, Nitish Kumar, Sitaram Yechury and Arvind Kejriwal, among others — the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust has invited a slew of film personalities. These include Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth, Madhuri Dixit, Anupam Kher, Akshay Kumar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Chiranjeevi, Mohanlal, Dhanush, Rishab Shetty, Madhur Bhandarkar, Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Ajay Devgn, Sunny Deol, Prabhas, Yash, Tiger Shroff, Ayushmann Khurrana, Arun Govil and Deepika Chikhalia Topiwala (who played Ram and Sita in the 1987 TV series Ramayan), and lyricist Prasoon Joshi.