Modi to inaugurate Hindu temple ahead of elections.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to preside over the opening of a massive Hindu temple on a contentious sacred site that has become a symbol of religious conflicts in the world’s largest democracy on Monday. The event is expected to bring India to a complete halt.

In addition to paying homage to Lord Ram, the most venerated god in Hinduism, the Ram Mandir, which is estimated to cost $217 million, is transforming Ayodhya, a city of around 3 million people located in the state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India, into a tourism destination that officials hope will be a substitute for the Vatican in the Hindu religion.

On the site of the Babri Masjid, which was a mosque that had been built in the 16th century, the temple was constructed. In 1992, Hindu nationalist rioters destroyed the mosque, which sparked riots across the country that resulted in the deaths of over 2,000 people, the majority of whom were Muslims.

The controversial ruling that the temple might be erected on the contested 7-acre site was made by the Supreme Court of India in 2019. This decision was met with criticism by Muslim organizations during the year 2019.

The opening of the temple, which is still a long way from being finished, takes place at a time when Modi and his Bhartiya Janata Party, which is represented by Hindu nationalists, are getting ready to run for a record-breaking third straight term in elections this spring. In India, a country of 1.4 billion people that has been predominantly Hindu ever since it achieved its independence in 1947, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) had been campaigning for the temple for decades, and the opening of the temple might also help Modi regain favor with voters in India.

The consecration event, which will take place during which a statue of Ram measuring 4.25 feet in height will be put in the inner sanctum of the temple, is expected to be attended by tens of thousands of devotees in addition to prominent Indian politicians, businesses, and Hollywood celebrities.

The coverage of the event, which is scheduled to be carried live across India as well as at Indian diplomatic missions and other locations around the world, including in Times Square in New York City late on Sunday, has been the primary focus of the Indian news media.

Modi to inaugurate Hindu temple ahead of elections.

In the island nation of Mauritius, which is located in the Indian Ocean and has a population that is virtually entirely Hindu, public officers who adhere to the Hindu faith are being granted two hours off work in order to observe the event.

Due to the fact that a Hindu temple cannot be dedicated until it is completely constructed, certain religious leaders within the Hindu community have declined to attend the ceremony. The Congress party, which is India’s most prominent opposition party, is among the other critics who accuse Modi of inflaming religious tensions.

A statement made by Sunita Viswanath, executive director of the nonprofit organization Hindus for Human Rights, which is based in the United States, stated that the ceremony was a “electoral stunt” that “should not be happening in the name of my faith.”

The statement was made in a press release by her. “Modi is not a priest, so leading this ceremony for political gain is both technically and morally wrong,” says the statement. Because of this weaponization of our religion, what little remains of India’s secular democratic values are being trampled upon.

Modi to inaugurate Hindu temple ahead of elections.

Approximately 200,000 people will be able to visit the temple each day, and the city of Ayodhya is currently undergoing a transformation that is centered on the temple. Roads have been enlarged, and the Ram Path, which is eight miles long and four lanes wide, is in charge of directing pilgrims to the three-story edifice made of pink sandstone.

There is a new airport that was inaugurated by Modi last month. The front of the airport features the architecture of the temple, and it will eventually be able to accommodate six million travelers annually. Local individuals, such as Amit Gupta, are converting their homes into guesthouses, while large new hotels are currently in the process of being constructed.

Having been born and nurtured in Ayodhya, Gupta, who is now 35 years old, expressed that he was “very happy” about the temple. What he said was, “Now we are getting the opportunity to see it finished right in front of our eyes.”

Gupta and his crew are making every effort to be ready for the anticipated rush of tourists that will be arriving in the coming weeks. According to Gupta, he is virtually completely booked with guests from all over India.

According to what he said, “We are working very hard to ensure that nobody arriving here receives any difficulties.” The feeling that they should take away from their time in Ayodhya is that “not only Lord Ram but also the people there took care of us.”

A number of Hindus are of the opinion that Lord Ram was born on the very spot where the Babri Masjid is located, and that the mosque was built to take the place of a Hindu temple that had been demolished by Muslim invaders.

This month, a spokesperson for Vishva Hindu Parishad, a Hindu nationalist party that has been judged for its part in the destruction of the mosque in 1992, stated that the endeavor to create the temple was “bigger than the independence movement itself.” This statement was made in reference to the fact that the mosque was destroyed.

The United States Supreme Court, in its decision from 2019, designated a new location for the construction of a mosque, which is approximately 15 miles distant. The construction of the new mosque has not yet begun on the five-acre site, despite the fact that Haji Arfat Shaikh, the head of the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation and a politician affiliated with the BJP, has stated that the new mosque will be “more beautiful than the Taj Mahal.”

As a result of his approval rating of 77% in India, Modi is considered to be the most popular leader in the world, as stated by Morning Consult, a company based in the United States. Modi enjoys a high degree of popularity in India. During his official visit to the White House in June of last year, he was met with protests over his human rights record as well as masses of admirers from the Indian diaspora of the United States.

Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi entered office in 2014, there has been a reduction in journalistic freedom in India, as well as an increase in communal violence against Muslims, Christians, and other religious minorities. In addition, he was attacked in 2019 for abolishing the limited autonomy of Kashmir, which is the only region in India that is predominantly under Muslim rule.

While this is going on, India has been gaining more prominence on the international stage. It has been improving its connections with the United States and its allies in an effort to counterbalance China, while simultaneously pushing its status as a leader of the International South.

The relationship between the United States and India is not devoid of tensions. An anonymous Indian government official was charged by United States authorities in November with conspiring to kill a Sikh separatist leader who was residing in New York. The official was suspected of being involved in the plot. When asked about such a crime, India has stated that it would be “contrary to government policy.”