India's Modi Inaugurates Controversial Ayodhya Temple

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 12 p.m., 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. -------- Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://trib.al/KM4k5RA Subscribe to Bloomberg Originals: https://trib.al/dJv9Uw8 Bloomberg Quicktake brings you global social video spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world. Connect with us on… YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Bloomberg Breaking News on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BloombergQuicktakeNow