The Indian PM inaugurates a Hindu temple on the location of a mosque that was destroyed centuries ago.
While the construction boom surrounding India’s largest Hindu temple continued nearby, the religious chants resounded through loudspeakers, and a few of the thousands of devotees who had flocked to the holy city of Ayodhya added their voices to the chorus.
On contentious ground where a 16th-century mosque once stood, the much-anticipated and ostentatious Ram Mandir temple is gradually taking shape in a city that has frequently been the scene of intercommunal violence. Two floors of the vast complex remain unfinished, and much of it is still a mess of dust and bulldozers.
The temple, which is only partially completed, opened on Monday. Hindu priests and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the site’s consecration. Before arranging flower petals at the feet of an idol of Lord Ram, one of Hinduism’s most revered deities, in the inner sanctum of the temple, Modi chanted Hindu religious verses.
With the inauguration, Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fulfilled a decades-old Hindu nationalist pledge. This is expected to energize voters ahead of a national election this spring.
