Schools are closed and flowers are falling from the sky. The holiday in India does not escape religious controversy

Narendra Modi led the dedication of the grand temple in Ayodhya. The temple opens to the public on Tuesday and its management expects 100,000 daily traffic over the next few months

The opening of a temple in honor of the Hindu god Ram in Ayodhya, India, brought together thousands of people on Monday in a moment considered historic for most of this religion. Helicopters are in the sky, flowers are falling and being distributed, and schools are closed.

The ceremony, which is being held in what is believed to be the birthplace of the Hindu god, was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was responsible for leading the dedication of the grand temple. According to ReutersThe event is seen as a crucial element in Modi's campaign to win a third term in the general elections scheduled for May.

“The whole of India is filled with joy and excitement over the consecration of Shri Ram Lalla at the Ayodhya Dham,” Modi wrote in his 10th book.

In Ayodhya Dham, Shri Ram Lalla is flown in from all over India. https://t.co/nGzYkOttSy

-Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 22, 2024

During the mass, Modi chanted Hindu religious verses before placing flower petals at the feet of the god Ram and joining his hands in prayer, while a military helicopter outside dropped petals on the temple and thousands of people watched the celebration. According to Reuters, about eight thousand people were invited to attend the ceremony, while more than ten thousand police officers guarded the city, and security was strengthened throughout the country, especially in cities and towns that suffered from tensions and conflicts between Hindus and Muslims in 2018. The past. .

The inauguration ceremony sparked religious fervor across India, with many states declaring a public holiday and thousands decorating their homes and shops, thus following Modi's request that the dedication be considered a new Diwali, the Hindu festival of light.

The temple was inaugurated on Monday as a result of fulfilling a promise made 35 years ago by Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. However, it was a controversial political issue that helped propel the party to prominence and power.

For decades, the temple's location has been the subject of a heated dispute between minority Hindus and Muslims, leading in 1992 to nationwide riots that killed hundreds of people, most of them Muslims, after Hindu mobs attacked the 16th-century mosque.

Hindus in India claim that the site is the birthplace of Lord Ram and was sacred to them long before the Muslim Mughals demolished a temple there to build the Babri Mosque in 1528. In 2019, the Supreme Court handed over the land to the Hindus and ordered that separate land be allocated to Muslims, as it had not begun. After building a new mosque.

Ayodhya, an ancient city with a population of about 76,000 in the electorally important state of Uttar Pradesh, is an important Hindu pilgrimage site and receives millions of visitors every year. Recently, the city has undergone major infrastructural redevelopment, including the construction of a new international airport, the renovation of the railway station and the opening of new roads and highways.