AYODHYA, India — With priests chanting and blowing conch shells, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the consecration of a controversial Hindu temple in this north Indian town on Monday. The ceremony was capped by the unveiling of a 51-inch black stone idol of the Hindu god Ram.
The temple inauguration marks the culmination of a decades-long dispute over a site that Hindus believe is the birthplace of their Lord Ram. In 1992, a mob egged on by leaders of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, now led by Modi, tore down a 16th century mosque. Riots that followed killed over 2,000 people, most of them Muslim.
