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More than 30 years after a 400-year-old mosque was pulled down, a new temple has been built

By Yogita Limaye

BBC News, in Ayodhya, India

Santosh Dubey says he has no regrets he helped tear down the mosque.

"It was religious work and I was put on this Earth to complete the task," he says. "There is no crime or sin in it."

Mr Dubey, a "kar sevak" (religious worker), was one of hundreds of thousands of Hindu men who demolished the 16th Century Babri Masjid in the Indian holy city of Ayodhya on 6 December 1992.

It was one of independent India's darkest days. The disputed site sits on one of its biggest religious fault-lines - thousands were killed in the violence that broke out.

More than 30 years later, where the mosque once stood a grand temple to Lord Ram, one of Hinduism's most revered deities, is about to be opened by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi. That's controversial in a country with a secular constitution, but especially so because of the divisive history of the site.

Monday's ceremony is being seen as the informal start of his campaign for re-election this year, wooing India's Hindu majority. Across the country, millions of Hindus are gearing up to celebrate the day like a big festival, while employees of Mr Modi's federal government have been given a half day.