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NEW DELHI: Hundreds of right-wing Hindu activists gathered Sunday in the Indian city of Ayodhya, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, to demand the construction of a Hindu temple on the site where the Babri mosque was demolished by a crowd in 1992.
The rally was organized by the World Hindu Congress (VHP), affiliated with the ultra-right Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which is the paternal party of the ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The VHP has described it as "one of the largest congregations of saints and temple supporters since 1992". That year, a large Hindu crowd destroyed the sixteenth-century Babri Mosque, built by the first Mughal leader Babur.
The right-wing Hindu parties claim that the mosque was built where the deity Ram was born.
"More than 200,000 people gathered in Ayodhya to lobby for their demands," local journalist Nitesh Singh told Arab News.
VHP Vice President Champat Rai told the crowd, "We are gathered here to remind intellectuals in this country that our quest for a temple has not ended with the demolition of the mosque in 1992. The fire lit at that time still burns in our hearts. "
The rally precedes a visit to the site of radical Hindu leader Uddhav Thackeray, who heads the Hindu Free Organization Shiv Sena, the ruling BJP ally in the state of Maharashtra.
"A temple must be built," said Thackeray at a press conference Sunday. "The BJP is very powerful, and if they do not build a temple, they will cease to be in power."
To reduce the pressure exerted by its allies, the BJP pledged to build a 221-meter tall Ram statue, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh said a few hours before the rally.
"We expected the Supreme Court of India to rule earlier, but the hearing was postponed until January," said Rakesh Tripathi, spokesman for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh. "Justice delayed, justice denied."
Most of the 5,000 Muslims living in Ayodhya, with a population of 46,000, have left the city for fear of violence.
"This minority does not trust the government," Ayodhya councilor Hajji Asad told Arab News. "Ayodhya has become a laboratory of Hindu extremism. The BJP has only one goal: to build the temple and to provoke conflicts between Muslims and Hindus, "he said.
"India is facing an economic crisis. Unemployment and corruption are on the rise, but the BJP is failing to solve these pressing problems, but to polarize the masses in the name of religion. "
The Inspector General of Ayodhya Police, Omkar Singh, refused to comment on the Arab Exodus in front of Arab News.
Abdul Jabbar, a city lawyer, said, "Why did the BJP not mention the temple for four years? Why now, with elections around the corner? The main concern of the BJP is the victory in 2019. "
Rakesh Tripathi, a BJP official in Uttar Pradesh, told Arab News that Ayodhya "has no history of community conflict".
He said: "Even after the demolition of the Babri mosque, there was no Hindu-Muslim conflict. Rumors are spreading to give a false impression of what is happening in the region. "
The BJP is keeping its promise to build a temple, he said, adding that the Supreme Court "was taking too long to make a pronouncement, causing unrest among Hindu residents, hence the rally".
Apoorvanand, a political analyst and professor at the University of Delhi, said the temple had never disappeared from the BJP program.
The party "has been working tirelessly on its polarization agenda over the last four years," he told Arab News, adding that he "managed to change the political discourse" by politicizing the Hindus.
He said: "Never before have minorities felt so alienated. Nationalism, not development, has always dominated the BJP's agenda. "
