Hardliners rally in Delhi amid temple row

Thousands of hardline Hindu monks and activists linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP gathered in New Delhi yesterday to urge the government to build a temple at the ruins of a 16th century mosque.

The calls for a new temple in Ayodhya come ahead of an election that must be held by May 2019, when Modi will seek a second term. Most analysts expect his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to fare far less well than it did in 2014, and critics often accuse the party of using communal issues to whip up support.

For the past three decades, the BJP and Hindu outfits associated with it have resurrected the Ayodhya controversy before elections, stoking tensions between Hindus and a Muslim minority who make up 14 per cent of India’s 1.3 billion people.

In 1992, Hindu hardliners tore down the centuries-old mosque in Ayodhya, triggering riots that killed about 2,000 people across India. Most Hindus believe the deity Ram was born in Ayodhya, and Hindu groups insist that there was a temple there before a mosque was built in 1528. Hindu monks want the government to introduce a legislation to pave the way for a temple.