New Delhi (Sputnik): The journey by Hindu hardliners to construct a Ram Temple in Ayodhya has been a winding one, witnessing drawn out litigation and communal violence.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was merely a worker in the initial struggle for the Ram Temple in 1991 along with then-Bharatiya Janata Party President (BJP) Lal Krishna Advani, known as the mascot and architect of the movement. Almost three decades after joining the movement as a young volunteer from Gujarat with political aspirations, Modi laid the first silver brick for the foundation of a grand Ram Temple in the Hindi heartland, Ayodhya – considered to be the birthplace of the revered Hindu god Ram and where the Mughal-era Babri Mosque once stood. The Ram Temple will set the stage for Modi in the 2024 elections, a year before the grand temple is expected to be completed and inaugurated in a mega ceremony. Building a grand temple on a centuries-old disputed piece of land in the small Indian town of Ayodhya has been a staple promise in the BJP’s election manifestos for the last four decades. Harshvardhan Tripathi, a political analyst, says that for a long time many believed the issue was being drawn out to be used as political leverage, playing on voters’ emotions.
