opens to the public
\nAYODHYA: Tens of thousands of Hindus braved biting cold on Tuesday to pray at a new temple to Lord Ram in India\u2019s northern city of Ayodhya, a day after its inaugural by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a site believed to be the god-king\u2019s birthplace. Hindu groups, Modi\u2019s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its affiliates have portrayed the opening as part of a Hindu renaissance. \u201cI was adamant about this … I will only leave after I have seen my Lord Ram,\u201d one of the visitors, Guddu Shukla, who queued at the temple gate at 4 a.m. in temperatures of about 8 degrees Celsius (46 degrees Fahrenheit), told news agency ANI. He was among more than 50,000 devotees who lined up before dawn on Tuesday to enter the temple, among some 200,000 who arrived in the city after the consecration, said a government official, Murli Dhar Singh. The site was bitterly contested for decades by Hindus and minority Muslims, sparking nationwide riots in 1992 that killed 2,000 people, mainly Muslims, police say, after a Hindu mob destroyed the 16th-century mosque there. Hindus say the site is the birthplace of Lord Ram, and was holy to them long before Muslim Mughals razed a temple at the spot to build the Babri Masjid, or mosque, in 1528. The Supreme Court handed the land to Hindus in 2019, ordering that Muslims be given a separate plot. \u201dDevotees inside are hugging the temple walls and crying,\u201d said a worshipper from central India, who did not give his name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
opens to the public AYODHYA: Tens of thousands of Hindus braved biting cold on Tuesday to pray at a new temple to Lord Ram in India\u2019s northern city of Ayodhya, a day after its inaugural by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a site believed to be the god-king\u2019s birthplace. Hindu groups, Modi\u2019s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382682,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-382652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n