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Modi Lays Temple Foundation Stone Marking Victory for Hindu Nationalist Party

Anjana Pasricha

   NEW DELHI - In a ceremony watched by millions of Indians on television,
   Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered prayers and laid the foundation
   stone for a grand Hindu temple to be built in the northern town of
   Ayodhya on the site of a mosque demolished by Hindu radicals.
   The ceremony marks a historic triumph for Modi's Bharatiya Janata
   Party, whose rise to political prominence was propelled by the
   three-decade campaign to build a temple to honor the revered Hindu
   deity Rama.
   "It is an emotional moment for India. A long wait ends today," Modi
   said after the ceremony that was held even as the COVID-19 pandemic
   continues in India.
   The temple is being built on the exact spot Hindus believe is the
   birthplace of Lord Rama. The demolition of the 16th century mosque that
   stood there in 1992 sparked deadly Hindu-Muslim riots and became a
   deeply divisive issue in the Hindu-majority country, where many Hindus
   want the temple to be built.
   The Supreme Court approved the temple's construction last November when
   it handed the bitterly contested plot of land to a Hindu group after a
   long legal battle.
   Modi said the site had been liberated and a "grand house" would be
   constructed for Lord Rama.

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