As part of his political scheme, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to inaugurate a partly completed Hindu temple on the ruins of a 16th century mosque in Ayodh-ya. Babri mosque was destroyed by Hindu mobs in 1992. The demolition sparked nationwide riots in which nearly 2 000 people were killed, mostly Muslims. Hindus claim that their Lord Ram was born at the site where the mosque stood. The temple however fulfils a decades-long Hindu nationalist pledge to construct a shrine there. The pledge played a major role in propelling the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) into political prominence in the 1990s. The BJP under Modi has heavily pushed for the Hindutva agenda, an ideology that believes India should become a land for Hindus. Ayodh-ya resident Haji Mahboob, who lost two relatives during the 1992 riots, says many Muslims believed that in 2019, when the Supreme Court granted Hindus permission to build the temple, the controversy might come to an end. But he says this has only emboldened the Hindus who are now threatening more mosques.