Modi lays stone for temple in Ayodhya
Temple will come up on the site where a 16th century mosque once stood
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone yesterday for a Hindu temple on a contentious site where a 16th century mosque once stood, a historic move that meets a decadeslong political promise as the pandemic slams the economy.
Clad in saffron, a colour that is significant for Hindus, Modi offered prayers at a nearby temple before laying a symbolic silver brick in the ground and taking part in a religious ceremony at the spot devotees believe is the birthplace of their deity Ram in the northern riverside town of Ayodhya.
India’s Supreme Court in November handed over ownership of the area to Hindus after decades of bitter dispute highlighted by deadly riots in the 1990s. Walls and buildings along roads in the town have been decorated with popular stories and legends related to the deity.
“Today all of India is emotional. Centuries of waiting is ending today,” Modi said in a speech after the ceremony. “Millions of people cannot perhaps believe that they are seeing this auspicious day in their lifetimes.”
Despite the coronavirus restricting a large crowd, Hindus rejoiced yesterday as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke ground on a long-awaited temple of their most revered god, Ram, at the site of a demolished 16th century mosque.
Modi offered prayers to nine stone blocks with Ram inscribed on them and kept in a small pit amid chanting of Hindu religious hymns to symbolise the start of construction of the temple, which is expected to take 3 1/2 years to complete. The blocks will serve as the monument’s foundation stones.
Modi wore a traditional outfit of a gold Kurta, a long shirt and a white Dhoti (a loose cloth wrapped around his waist) along with a face mask. Before the start of the ceremony, he prostrated before a small idol of the god Ram that was kept in a makeshift temple set up by Hindu nationalists at the site where the mosque was demolished in 1992.
“It’s an emotional and historic moment. Wait has been worthwhile,’’ said Lal Krishna Advani, a 92-year-old leader of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, who was at the forefront of the party’s temple campaign in the 1990s.
Organisers said the ceremony was set on an astrologically auspicious date for Hindus, but yesterday also marked a year since the Indian Parliament revoked the semi-autonomous status of its only Muslim-majority state, Jammu and Kashmir.
The symbolism was impossible to miss since Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party had long pledged in its manifesto to strip Kashmir’s autonomy and to build a temple to Ram where the Mughal-era mosque once stood.
Modi said in a speech that the ceremony was a “historic occasion” for which Hindus waited for centuries.
He recalled that Mahatma Gandhi, India’s independence leader, fondly referred to “Ram Rajya (rule)” as an ideal state where values of justice and equality prevailed and even the weakest people could get justice.
He said the proposed temple will become a symbol of “modern India.’’
“Every heart is illuminated; it is an emotional moment for the entire country... A long wait ends today... A grand temple will now be built for our Ram Lalla who had been living under a tent for many years,” PM Modi had said, at foundation stone-laying ceremony.
“With the construction of this temple, not only history is being made, but is being repeated. The way boatmen
It is an emotional moment for entire country... A long wait ends today… A grand temple will now be built for our Ram Lalla.”
Narendra Modi | Indian prime minister
to tribals helped Lord Ram, the way children helped Lord Krishna lift Govardhan mountain, similarly, with everyone’s efforts temple construction will be completed,” he had added.
The main roads of Ayodhya were barricaded and about 3,000 paramilitary soldiers guarded the city, where all shops and businesses were closed.
“Had this function been held on normal days, all these roads would have been chocka-block with people. Millions of people would have come to Ayodhya to witness this historic event,” temple priest Hari Mohan said.
Only 175 religious saints, priests and Hindu and Muslim community representatives were invited to the ceremony. But many, including senior leaders of Hindu nationalist organisations, weren’t wearing masks, or were wearing them improperly.
Water from Indian rivers in 2,000 earthen pots sent by various Hindu temples and Sikh shrines was poured at the site.
The groundbreaking follows a ruling by India’s Supreme Court last November favouring the building of a Hindu temple on the disputed site in Uttar Pradesh state. Hindus believe Ram was born at the site and claim Muslim Emperor Babur built a mosque on top of a temple there.
The Babri Masjid mosque was destroyed by Hindu radicals with pickaxes and crowbars in December 1992, sparking massive Hindu-Muslim violence that left some 2,000 people dead, most of them Muslims.