AYODHYA, India (Reuters) – Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched the construction of a Hindu temple on a site that has been contested by Muslims for decades in a dispute that has sparked some of India’s most bloody communal violence.
The Supreme Court ruled last year that Hindus, who the site of the northern city of Ayodhya is the birthplace of Lord Ram, a physical incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, deserve to be allowed to build a temple there, ending years of litigation.
Modi, whose Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata (BJP) campaigned for more than 3 decades for the temple, revealed a plaque on it in an elaborate rite to inaugurate the construction.
“The whole country is delighted, the wait for centuries is over,” Modi said in a speech, after cutting off a white mask with which he dressed as a new precaution against coronavirus.
“See Lord Ram’s astonishing strength. The buildings have been destroyed, there has been a great effort to eliminate their existence, Ram remains in our minds even today.
Hindus say the site was holy for them long before the Muslim Mughals, India’s most prominent Islamic rulers, built the Babri Mosque there in 1528.
Hindu protesters demolished the mosque in 1992, sparking riots in which some 2,000 people died, mostly Muslims.
Many Muslims in Ayodhya welcomed the temple structure in the hope that it would end with years of bitterness with Hindus and contribute to economic growth, but an influential Muslim organization has opposed it.
“The usurpation of the land through an unfair, oppressive, shameful and reassuring judgment by the majority replaces their status,” the Muslim Personal Law Board across India said on Twitter.
“I don’t want to be heartbroken. Situations don’t last forever.”
Many members of India’s Muslim minority saw that last year’s court ruling assigned the right to Hindus as a component of a style of Hindu nationalist government aimed at keeping Muslims out of the way.
He denies this.
Construction was introduced wednesday on the first anniversary of Modi’s removal of special privileges for India’s only Muslim-majority state, Jammu and Kashmir, another highly debatable factor for Muslims.
The BJP has long called for the revocation of Kashmir’s controversial special autonomy. The government said the replacement needed to expand the conflict-ravaged region and integrate it with the rest of India.
Prior to the temple’s launch, Modi participated in Hindu rituals that included making a song of Vedic mantras through saffron-clad priests to bless the site.
Strict security in Ayodhya, 687 km (427 miles) southeast of the capital, New Delhi, as the sound of prayers filled its streets as worshippers and priests flocked to their ancient temples to celebrate.
The organizers of the occasion amassed land from more than 2000 sacred sites and water from more than a hundred rivers to pray to them at the beginning of construction. A devotee of Ram from the state of Tamil Nadu donated two bricks, one in gold and the other in silver.
But while Hindus celebrate, the legal battles are not yet over.
Three former BJP government ministers face a criminal conspiracy trial similar to the alleged Mafia incitement that destroyed the old mosque in 1992. They deny the accusations.
Reporting through Krishna N. Das; Editing through Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel
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