Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday attended the inauguration of a sprawling Hindu temple built on a site that was once a flashpoint of Hindu-Muslim conflict, an event seen as a milestone on his road to reelection.
The Ram Mandir shrine in the northern city of Ayodhya is still under construction on land that was handed to Hindus by India’s top court in November 2019, after decades of dispute. A 16th-century mosque, Babri Masjid, on the same site was demolished by a Hindu mob in 1992, triggering communal riots that left nearly 2,000 people dead.
Modi, whose Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made building a new temple on the site a key promise of election platforms since the 1990s, laid the foundation stone in August 2020. Three and a half years later, he joined the temple’s consecration ceremony, just a few months before he seeks a third term as prime minister in general elections due in April and May.
The Prime Minister entered the shrine’s premises carrying offerings for the Hindu deity to which it is dedicated, Lord Ram. Before the event, he had been fasting for 11 days and touring temples linked to Ram in the country’s south.
An idol of Lord Ram, depicting him as a five-year-old child, was unveiled during the ceremony as the Prime Minister and priests offered prayers and thousands of devotees outside chanted “Jai Shree Ram” (Hail Lord Ram). Ayodhya was decorated with flowers, rangoli (powder color paintings on the ground) and earthen lamps, giving it the feel of Diwali, a Hindu festival marking the return of Lord Ram to Ayodhya after 14 years in exile.
Modi was accompanied by high-profile figures including Mohan Bhagwat, chief of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – the Hindu nationalist ideological parent of the BJP – and Yogi Adityanath, chief minister of the state of Uttar Pradesh.
Experts say the temple could create a strong election tailwind for Modi by tapping into the religious passions of his base.
“The Ram temple inauguration will certainly provide huge traction to Modi’s larger-than-life political status and the image of the BJP,” Praveen Rai, a political analyst at the New Delhi-based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, told Nikkei Asia. He said the event marks the “culmination of the relentless quest of the majority community in India for regaining its lost cultural glory and religious pride.”
Hindus believe that the site is the birthplace of Lord Ram, one of their most revered deities, and that the Babri Masjid was built there by the Muslim Mughal ruler Babur in 1528 after destroying an ancient temple. The 2019 court verdict came after the Archaeological Survey of India presented evidence of non-Islamic ruins beneath the demolished Babri Masjid.
Nripendra Misra, chairman of the independent Shri Ramjanmabhoomi Temple Construction Committee, said the temple is being built without financial assistance from the government. Rather, about 40 million Indians donated to the project. Misra said the total received was more than double the construction estimate, at over Indian Rs. 30 billion.
Each day, at least 100,000 devotees are expected to visit the temple, which sits on a 1.12-hectare site inside a 28.7-hectare complex that will also house a pilgrimage centre and a museum. To better serve the crowds, a new international airport opened in Ayodhya late last month. New hotels and shops are sprouting up, while roads and rail services are being improved.
The consecration is a glamorous affair, with Bollywood celebrities, politicians, industrialists and sports stars among the invitees. Senior leaders from India’s main opposition Congress Party, including Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, were also invited but “respectfully” declined to attend.
(Foreign Media)
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