INDIA: India is poised expectantly for today's Supreme Court judgment which will decide whether Hindus can hold a prayer ceremony before constructing a temple to their god Lord Ram on the ruins of a mosque they demolished a decade ago in Ayodhya.
A "band of steel" has been thrown around the disputed site to keep out Hindu fundamentalists; the World Hindu Council is leading a campaign to start building the temple on Friday in violation of court restrictions.
Nearly 10,000 police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed.
After failing to reach a compromise on the temple issue the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, declared wearily that the Supreme Court should decide.
Mr Vajpayee faces the prospect of a Hindu-Muslim bloodbath if the prayer ceremony, prior to building the temple, is allowed. Several of the prime minister's key partners have also threatened to quit the coalition if the temple construction ceremony is held.
The 16th-century Babri mosque was razed in 1992 by Hindu zealots, who believed the spot to be Ram's birth place. This led to countrywide riots in which more than 2,000 people died.
Ever since, the World Hindu Council, supported by Mr Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist-led federal coalition, has been agitating to build the temple. Matters reached a climax last month when a trainload of 58 Hindu extremists returning from Ayodhya were burnt alive by Muslims in Gujarat state.
A retaliatory pogrom across Gujarat followed in which more than 600 Muslims, mostly women and children, were massacred and 10,000 rendered homeless. Gujarat's Hindu nationalist government was accused by the opposition, human rights activists and the media of openly aiding the rioters in the retaliatory attacks through the police's "wilful inactivity ".
But even as the temple controversy rages, a frail septuagenarian sadhu (Hindu holy man) is busy caring for a pile of 300,000 bricks sent to Ayodhya by Hindu's from across India and 46 other countries.
With "Shri Ram" - honouring Lord Ram - inscribed on each one in India's many languages, the Hindu council proposes to use the bricks as the temple's foundation.
"I have been looking after these bricks for nearly a decade," said Atma Chetan (76), surrounded by the mountain of bricks. "Taking care of them is of utmost important to me, as they represent the sentiments of millions of Hindus."
Following a call by the Hindu council, the bricks were "donated" by 300,000 villages from across the country. About 83.7 million rupees (€1.94 million) was also collected from these villages for the temple's construction.
Meanwhile, 106 intricately carved sandstone pillars, half the number to be used in building the temple, have been stacked a mile from the site. "
We will build the temple to our god," Girish Bhai Sompura, who supervised the pillars said. "Nothing will stop us."
