The Covid-19 crisis in India is still escalating, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to lay the foundation stone for the Ram Janmabhoomi temple in a bhoomi pujan ceremony Wednesday afternoon. He is supposed to lay a 22-kg silver brick to symbolise the start of construction.
After decades of dispute, the 2.77 acre piece of land in Ayodhya was allotted by the Supreme Court to the Hindus in November 2019.
Nearly 28 years ago, on 5 December 1992, ThePrint’s National Photo Editor, Praveen Jain, was in Ayodhya when he received a scoop from a BJP parliamentarian about how kar sevaks were rehearsing the demolition of the Babri Masjid that stood on that piece of land, and a blow-by-blow account of how incidents were going to unfold the next day, when the mosque was brought down.
Jain documented the series of events leading up to and including the demolition in his film camera. Here are some unseen images:
Jain documented the series of events leading up to and including the demolition in his film camera. Here are some unseen images: