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More than 100,000 oil lamps will light up the city in celebration, said chief priest Satyendra Das.
A security clampdown, however, will allow only limited entry to Hindu devotees into the city because of the coronavirus pandemic. Last week, a priest and 15 police officers in the area tested positive for the virus.
As ordered by the Supreme Court, the Uttar Pradesh state government set up a trust last week for the building of a new mosque at a nearby site, in a village 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the spot where the Babri mosque was demolished by Hindu radicals.
But there is no allocation of funds yet for the project. The government-run Sunni Central Waqf (Endowment) Board’s chairman, Zafur Ahmed Faruqi, said mosques are always built with public support. “Money is bound to pour in,” he said. “We will open a bank account and ask people to donate for the construction of the mosque.”
Faruqi didn’t give a time frame for building the new mosque. Muslim community groups have not yet come forward in support of the project.
Hindu hard-liners began preparing for the new temple in the 1990s, and prefabricated blocks of huge, ornately carved stones displaying Hindu mythology are ready for once the construction work starts. The construction is expected to take 3 1/2 years.
Zafaryab Jilani, who represents the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said that while the Muslim community is not satisfied with the Supreme Court’s ruling, it will respect the decision and not protest the building of the temple.
Saeed Naqvi, a political analyst, said he didn’t expect any trouble between Hindus and Muslims over the issue. “Muslims by themselves have learned the hard lesson that if they oppose this issue, it only helps Hindutva (Hindu ideology),” he said.
Several prominent Muslim writers, academics and activists, who didn’t want to be identified, refused to discuss the issue, suggesting that the community was resigned to the new reality.
But some expressed fear that the new temple could embolden Hindu nationalists to target two other mosques in Uttar Pradesh.
“The Modi government should assure Muslims that Hindu outfits will not ask for the construction of temples in Varanasi and Mathura after demolishing existing mosques there,” said Iqbal Ansari, the main litigant in the Supreme Court case.
The Gyanvapi mosque in the Uttar Pradesh city of Varanasi is in the complex of the Kashi Vishwanath temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. In Mathura, another city in the state, the Shahi Idgah mosque stands adjacent to the temple complex that marks the birthplace of the Hindu god Krishna. Hindu organizations say both structures were built by razing previously existing temples.
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Sharma reported from New Delhi.
FILE – In this Nov. 11, 2019, file photo, Hindu women devotees pray to the bricks reading “Shree Ram” (Lord Ram), which are expected to be used in constructing Ram temple, in Ayodhya, India. As Hindus prepare to celebrate the groundbreaking of a long-awaited temple at a disputed ground in northern India, Muslims say they have no firm plans yet to build a new mosque at an alternative site they were granted to replace the one torn down by Hindu hard-liners decades ago. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh, File)
Credit: Rajesh Kumar Singh
Credit: Rajesh Kumar Singh
A photo of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, right, along with other leaders are seen on the decorated ghats of the Saryu river ahead of a groundbreaking ceremony of a temple to the Hindu god Ram in Ayodhya, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Monday, Aug. 3, 2020. As Hindus prepare to celebrate the groundbreaking of a long-awaited temple at a disputed ground in northern India, Muslims say they have no firm plans yet to build a new mosque at an alternative site they were granted to replace the one torn down by Hindu hard-liners decades ago. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Credit: Rajesh Kumar Singh
Credit: Rajesh Kumar Singh
Indian Muslims look at pillars lying at a workshop for the construction of a Rama temple ahead of its groundbreaking ceremony in Ayodhya, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Monday, Aug. 3, 2020. As Hindus prepare to celebrate the groundbreaking of a long-awaited temple at a disputed ground in northern India, Muslims say they have no firm plans yet to build a new mosque at an alternative site they were granted to replace the one torn down by Hindu hard-liners decades ago. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Credit: Rajesh Kumar Singh
Credit: Rajesh Kumar Singh
FILE – In this Dec. 6, 1992, file photo, Hindu hard-liners stand on top of one of the three domes of the 16th century Babri mosque before it was destroyed in Ayodhya, India. As Hindus prepare to celebrate the groundbreaking of a long-awaited temple at a disputed ground in northern India, Muslims say they have no firm plans yet to build a new mosque at an alternative site they were granted to replace the one torn down by Hindu hard-liners decades ago. (AP Photo/Udo Weitz, File)
Credit: UDO WEITZ
Credit: UDO WEITZ
Illuminated city of Ayodhya is seen ahead of the groundbreaking ceremony of a temple to the Hindu god Ram in Ayodhya, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Monday, Aug. 3, 2020. As Hindus prepare to celebrate the groundbreaking of a long-awaited temple at a disputed ground in northern India, Muslims say they have no firm plans yet to build a new mosque at an alternative site they were granted to replace the one torn down by Hindu hard-liners decades ago. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Credit: Rajesh Kumar Singh
Credit: Rajesh Kumar Singh
FILE – In this Nov. 10, 2019, file photo, Indian Muslims read a newspaper reporting about a Supreme Court verdict favoring the building of a Hindu temple on a site in a decades-old land title dispute between Muslims and Hindus in Ayodhya, India. As Hindus prepare to celebrate the groundbreaking of a long-awaited temple at a disputed ground in northern India, Muslims say they have no firm plans yet to build a new mosque at an alternative site they were granted to replace the one torn down by Hindu hard-liners decades ago. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh, File)
Credit: Rajesh Kumar Singh
Credit: Rajesh Kumar Singh
Workers decorate one of the main street as part of preparations for the groundbreaking ceremony of a temple to the Hindu god Ram in Ayodhya, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Monday, Aug. 3, 2020. As Hindus prepare to celebrate the groundbreaking of a long-awaited temple at a disputed ground in northern India, Muslims say they have no firm plans yet to build a new mosque at an alternative site they were granted to replace the one torn down by Hindu hard-liners decades ago. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Credit: Rajesh Kumar Singh
Credit: Rajesh Kumar Singh
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