One-third of invitees from the US, including doctor who lobbied for US visa clearance for Modi in 2014; many others not on the list due to security protocol, says VHP.

A US-based oncologist who lobbied for visa clearance for Narendra Modi in early 2014, a senior fellow at the Nokia Bell Labs in Indiana, a Norwegian MP, a New Zealand scientist, a Fijian industrialist and saints who have established Hindu schools in the Caribbean. These are among the 100-odd international guests who have been invited to attend the January 22 Ram temple inauguration in Ayodhya.

Guests from as many as 53 countries, including the US, the UK, Europe, Australia and Africa, are on the VHP guest list for the event.

The biggest number of welcomes, close to 33% of the list if people to attend, have been shipped off the US. Five individuals have been welcomed from Hong Kong, three each from South Korea, Malaysia and the UK and two each from Germany and Italy. The other nations have one invitee each.

One of the key guests is Dr Bharat Barai, who lobbied with the US government to sanction Modi’s visa just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2014. Till then, the BJP leader was facing a 10-year visa ban imposed by the US government.

An ardent supporter of the BJP, Dr Barai has hosted many party stalwarts at his residence in the US. He has also worked on strengthening ties between Israel and India.

“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.

Vigyananand handles VHP’s foreign relations and is the worldwide administrator of the World Hindu Establishment. As per Vigyananand, there was impressive energy about the occasion among Hindus across the world. Many key government position holders in outside nations had moved toward the VHP communicating their craving to go to the occasion however must be pleasantly declined, he said.

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Another key invitee from the US is Dr Abhay Asthana, a fellow at Nokia Bell Labs-CTO in Indiana, who also serves as the president of World Hindu Council of America, known as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America.

Himanshu Gulati, Norway MP representing the Progress Party who earlier worked in the office of the Norwegian Prime Minister, will be a key representative of the Hindu community from Scandinavia, while New Zealand scientist and academic Prof Guna Magesan, who is also the general secretary of Hindu Council of New Zealand, will represent the Indian diaspora at the ceremony.

Fiji, which has a significant Indian diaspora, will see the participation of Jai Dayal, owner of the country’s biggest steel manufacturing company.

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Aside from them, Dhiraj Bhai shah, leader of Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh in the UK; veteran VHP pioneers Rameshbhai Jain from Germany and Vitthal Maheshwari from Italy; Subramaniam Ramamurthy, VHP president in Australia; Ratan Garg from Canada; Master Prakashnanda, the organizer and acharya of Chinmaya Mission of Trinidad and Tobago; Master Aksharananda, pioneer and head of the esteemed Saraswati Vidya Niketan (Confidential Hindu School) in Guyana; financial specialist Sathasivam from Sri Lanka and Hindu pioneers from different nations in South Asia and somewhere else are essential for the list of attendees.