SAT Desk
Prime Minister Narendra Modi fulfilled his party's decades-long promise by consecrating a controversial Hindu temple in northern India on Monday, marking a new milestone in the popular leader's project of reshaping the country into a more avowedly Hindu nation.
Hailing the day as the "dawn of a new era," Modi took center stage at the opening of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, bringing together religion, politics and spectacle in a style that the prime minister has embraced. The event, which was marked by a last-minute holiday across much of India, helps launch his campaign to lead India for a third term in elections expected within months. As the ceremony kicked off around 12pm, the prime minister strode into the inner sanctuary and performed a series of rituals before a newly minted idol of the Hindu god Ram, a statue of about 4 feet (1.2 meters) covered in gold and flowers, and flanked by priests in traditional saffron robes.
Modi later addressed a gathered crowd of more than 7,000 guests, including business leaders like Mukesh Ambani, Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan and other elites. His entrance to the temple was preceded by helicopters sweeping over the site and showering rose petals on the crowd below. "People will speak and discuss this day and what happened here, a thousand years from now," Modi told the assembled crowd.
