Work begins on Ram temple today
MODI TO LAY FOUNDATION STONE TO BUILD TEMPLE AT RAZED MOSQUE SITE IN AYODHYA
As Hindus prepare to celebrate the groundbreaking of a long-awaited temple at a disputed ground in northern India, Muslims say they have no firm plans yet to build a new mosque at an alternative site they were granted to replace the one torn down by Hindu hardliners decades ago.
Today’s groundbreaking ceremony 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 their god Ram was born at the site and claim that the Mughal Emperor Babur built a mosque on top of a temple there.
The 16th century Babri Masjid mosque was destroyed by Hindu hardliners in December 1992, sparking massive HinduMuslim violence that left some 2,000 people dead. The Supreme Court’s verdict paved the way for the building of a temple in place of the demolished mosque.
Today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay five silver bricks as the temple foundation amid the chanting of Hindu religious hymns. Houses and other buildings close to the temple site in the city of Ayodhya are being painted yellow to recreate the look when the Hindu god Ram ruled there for thousands of years, according to the Hindu epic Ramayana.
More than 100,000 oil lamps will light up the city in celebration, said chief priest Satyendra Das. A security clampdown, however, will allow only limited entry to Hindu devotees into the city because of the coronavirus pandemic. As ordered by the Supreme Court, the Uttar Pradesh state government set up a trust last week for the building of a new mosque at a nearby site, in a village 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the spot where the Babri mosque was demolished by Hindu radicals.
But there is no allocation of funds yet for the project. The government-run Sunni Central
Waqf (Endowment) Board’s chairman, Zafur Ahmad Faruqi, said mosques are always built with public support. “Money is bound to pour in,” he said. “We will open a bank account and ask people to donate for the construction of the mosque.”
Prefabricated blocks
Faruqi didn’t give a time frame for building the new mosque. Muslim community groups have not yet come forward in support of the project.
Hindu hardliners began preparing for the new temple in the 1990s, and prefabricated blocks of huge, ornately carved stones displaying Hindu mythology are ready for once the construction work starts. The construction is expected to take 3 1/2 years.
Zafaryab Jilani, who represents the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said that while the Muslim community is not satisfied with the Supreme Court’s ruling, it will respect the decision and not protest the building of the temple.
Saeed Naqvi, a political analyst, said he didn’t expect any trouble between Hindus and
Muslims over the issue. “Muslims by themselves have learned the hard lesson that if they oppose this issue, it only helps Hindutva (Hindu ideology),” he said.
Several prominent Muslim writers, academics and activists, who didn’t want to be identified, refused to discuss the issue, suggesting that the community was resigned to the new reality.
But some expressed fear that the new temple could embolden Hindu nationalists to target two other mosques in Uttar Pradesh.