India's controversial Ram temple built over demolished mosque to be ready by 1 Jan 2024

India's Home Minister Amit Shah has announced that the controversial Ram Temple, built on the site of the demolished Babri mosque, will be ready by 1 January 2024. 

Shah, who belongs to the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), made the comments at a public meeting in the north-eastern state of Tripura on Thursday. 

He attacked his political rival, Rahul Ghandi of the Congress Party, in the speech.

"In 2019, Rahul Gandhi used to taunt us and say that while we keep promising construction of the Ram Temple, we never give a fixed date. I would like to tell him and everyone else that the Ram Temple at Ayodhya will be ready on January 1, 2024," he said according to the Hindustan Times. 

This is the first time a specific date has been assigned to the temple's completion.

The Ram Temple is a controversial place of worship being constructed in the northern city of Ayodhya on the site of the Babri Masjid, a 16th century mosque that was destroyed by a Hindu extremist mob in December 1992. 

Senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - which is currently led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi -  had encouraged their followers to demolish the mosque, claiming that it had been built over a temple marking the birthplace of the Hindu deity Lord Ram.

The demolition caused intercommunal violence between Muslims and Hindus, with around 2,000 people killed.

India's Supreme Court awarded the disputed piece of land upon which the mosque once stood to the Hindu side in 2019, and the Muslims were given five acres of land elsewhere in Ayodhya for a mosque. 

A priceless piece of Indian heritage, destroyed by an iconoclastic Hindu nationalist mob 30 years ago, today.#BabriMasjid #heritage #Hindutva pic.twitter.com/f6unIOdHmH

— Dr. Audrey Truschke (@AudreyTruschke) December 6, 2022

The following year, a special court acquitted all those who had been involved in the mosque's destruction, even though it is illegal to demolish a historic place of worship in India.

The destruction of the mosque and the court's subsequent acquittal of the accused have led to calls by Hindu nationalists for the destruction of other mosques and churches across the country, on the presumed basis that they were built over sacred Hindu sites.