Lord Ram temple opens in January, fulfilling ruling party’s promise.
The location in the northern town of Ayodhya, where the temple building is almost finished, has been the subject of a protracted dispute between Hindus and Muslims.
Hindus, who make up the bulk of the population in India, claim that the location was Lord Ram’s birthplace and was sacred to them before Muslim Mughals destroyed a temple there and constructed the Babri mosque there in 1528.
In 1992, a Hindu mob razed the mosque, setting off riots that claimed the lives of around 2,000 people mostly Muslims across India.
The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), under by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has made the construction of a Ram temple there a key campaign issue for more than three decades.
Through India’s courts, Hindu and Muslim organizations have struggled over who should possess the site. The land was given to Hindus in 2019 and a separate piece was ordered to be allocated to Muslims.
Despite their displeasure, Muslim organizations indicated they will accept the ruling “humbly.”
The ground floor of the temple will be finished in December, according to Nripendra Misra, the chairman of the Shri Ramjanmabhoomi Temple Construction Committee, and devotees will be able to pray there after the Lord Ram deity is relocated there in January.
