Even if he does, the unbuilt Ram temple will loom large in Indian politics ahead of a general election due before November next year.

ECONOMIST: A riot 11 years ago still roils Indian politics

Car horns mingle with temple bells and villagers dressed in their finest clothes queue up outside the famous Ram Raja Temple to offer flowers to the reigning deity.

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The party had, in 1989, extended its strong support to the hardline Hindu Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) for the construction of a temple to the Hindu god Ram in place of an ancient mosque in Ayodhya.

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That too was seen as retribution for anti-Muslim communal rioting: the killing of some 900 people in Mumbai that followed the destruction of a mosque in the town of Ayodhya, built, many Hindus believe, on the site of a temple marking the birthplace of Ram, a model king and incarnate deity.

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And on September 24th a court was due to rule on one of the most divisive issues in Indian politics: the ownership of a disputed site in the northern city of Ayodhya, where in 1992, Hindu zealots demolished a mosque built on the reputed site of a temple marking the birthplace of the god Ram.

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The unfulfilled mission of the destroyers to build a temple on the site they say marks the birthplace of Ram, a model king and incarnate deity has haunted Indian politics ever since, poisoning communal relations between Hindus and the Muslim minority.

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Its spokesman, Ram Madhav, says that there are only three possible solutions to the temple dispute.

ECONOMIST: A riot 11 years ago still roils Indian politics

RSS's saffron brigades, whose dearest wish is to build a temple on what they believe to be the birthplace of the god Ram.

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