'Not Temple Inauguration. It's Modi Event'

North India is convulsed with spiritual excitement over the pran pratishta at the Ram temple.
But what do folks in Tamil Nadu think about the events in Ayodhya?

Few in Tamil Nadu seem to know what a pran pratishta is, discovers A Ganesh Nadar.

Rajesh Kumar, Uber driver, Chennai

For the past week, Modiji has been going to temples in South India and sleeping on the floor.

Does he know how many poor people sleep on the floor?

Modiji will be there, all else is irrelevant. I still have to drive my cab for a living.

Vinodha, teacher, Tuticorin district

I am not interested in any new temple now. There are so many Ram temples in Tamil Nadu that are not maintained properly.

People have not recovered from the floods; the money could have been spent to help them instead of building one more temple.

The village where the giant bell for the Ram temple was made has been destroyed in the floods.

Chandrasekhar, brick kiln owner, Tirunelveli

I am not interested in any Ram temple. There is a carpenter in my village who is a BJP member, he has been raving about it.

The recent floods devastated my brick kiln. I have to rebuild from scratch, you think I have time for any temple?

Esaki, journalist, Tiruchirrapalli

I don't think people in Tamil Nadu are interested in a Ram temple.

Ram is a North Indian God, our people like Karthik more. Moreover, it doesn't seem like a temple inauguration. It feels like a Modi event, solely to promote Modi.

Dhanalakshmi, house maid, Chennai

My brother drives a swamiji devoted to Ram. The swamiji got an invitation to go to Ayodhya, so my brother dropped him to the airport.

I have to work for a living and will continue to work. I don't think it will benefit us poor folk in any way.

Saraswati, housewife, Chennai

I am very happy with the inauguration, but it will be too crowded to go now. Maybe I will go and have darshan in the summer.

Senthil, Coimbatore

There are so many more important problems now for the nation to solve.

As a temple it looks good, but I am not going to rush there in this crowd.

I will go there after a couple of months, both as a pilgrim and as a tourist.

Sabapathi, billionaire, Chennai

I will definitely go and see it. There has been so much hype about it. I will go next week, there is an airport now so it will be easy travel.

Kadhar Mohideen, computer repairman, Tuticorin

It has been done with the selfish motive of promoting one man ahead of the elections.

• The Ram Temple

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com