The foreign media coverage of the Pran-Prathishtha ceremony in Ayodhya was a spectacle of meltdown, to say the least. Prominent foreign media outlets published poorly researched and biased reports that may lead one to question whether they are unhappy with India’s ruling party or Hindus in general.
It is worth noting that none of these foreign media reports considered the Hindu community’s perspective in their article. Also, they attribute their unverified claims to “critics.”
Here are some examples of how the most popular foreign media brands covered the story of Ram Mandir:
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
It didn’t matter to the BBC that the temple came to Hindus after a long-fought legal battle or that beneath the Babri. There was an ancient temple as sacred to us as the Vatican is to Catholics. All they had to say in their report was this:
“Critics have also accused the government of exploiting a religious celebration in a country which – according to its constitution – is secular. For Muslims, India’s biggest minority, the event evoked fear and painful memories, members of the community in Ayodhya told the BBC in the run-up to Monday’s ceremony.”
New York Times (NYT)
In a news article titled “Modi Opens a Giant Temple in a Triumph for India’s Hindu Nationalists,” Mujib Mashal and Hari Kumar write:
The temple inaugurated by the prime minister is on the disputed site of a centuries-old mosque destroyed in a Hindu mob attack that set a precedent of impunity in cases of violence against Muslims.”
In another article titled ‘Why India’s Ram Temple is so Important?,’ Kumar writes that “Islam does not appear in the Ramayana, having arrived in India only 1,000 years ago. But it is cast as the primary villain in the Hindu-nationalist telling of India’s history. Now, with a kind of spiritual and political homecoming for Mr. Modi, the Ram campaigners have the temple they had sought for decades.”
Washington Post
Modi’s consecration of controversial Hindu temple caps years-long campaign
“Critics feared the state-encouraged religious festivities – and simmering talk of Hindu supremacy and historical vengeance – showed how India under Modi has diverged from the vision of those who struggled for freedom, including Mohandas K. Gandhi, a defender of minority rights who often pleaded for the safety of his Muslim. Compatriots when Hindu-Muslim riots erupted.”
Al Jazeera
India’s Modi opens controversial Hindu temple in Ayodhya
“Analysts and critics see the ceremony as the start of the election campaign for Modi, an avowed Hindu nationalist and one of India’s most consequential leaders who has sought to transform the country from a secular democracy into a distinctly Hindu state in his nearly 10 years in power.
They say the pomp-filled display led by the government shows the extent to which the line between religion and state has eroded under Modi.
Built at an estimated cost of $217m and spread over nearly 3 hectares (7.4 acres), the temple lies atop the debris of the 16th-century Babri mosque, which was razed to the ground in 1992 by Hindu mobs, who believed it was built on temple ruins marking the birthplace of Lord Ram.”
France 24
India’s Modi inaugurates flashpoint temple seen as triumph for Hindu nationalism
Pavni Mittal writes the following:
“January 22, 2024 is not merely a date in the calendar but heralds the advent of a new era,” Modi said, speaking outside the temple to the Hindu deity Ram, built on grounds where a mosque stood for centuries before it was torn down in 1992 by Hindu zealots incited by members of his party.
That demolition triggered the worst religious riots since independence – killing 2,000 people, most of them Muslims – and shook the foundations of India’s officially secular political order.”
VOA News
In an article titled Modi Unveils Grand New Temple on Site of Destroyed Mosque, Anjana Pasricha explains how “In December 1992, a huge mob of Hindu right-wing activists used hammers, axes and bare hands to demolish the mosque, sparking nationwide religious riots that killed nearly 2,000 people. It was the worst communal violence witnessed in India since its independence. … In the 1990’s, the campaign to build the temple stirred up Hindu nationalism and catapulted the BJP, which until then was a marginal political party, into a dominant political force.”
Time
In India Is Unveiling Its Controversial Temple of Ram. Here’s What to Know, Yasmeen Serhan claims
“For Modi, whose Hindu-nationalist government has overseen a steady rise in violence against Muslims and other religious minorities, the consecration represents the fulfilment of a decade-long pledge to rebuild the temple (the construction of which isn’t due to be completed until December).”
The portal also gave space to Audrey Truschke to write this Hinduphobic piece that calls Lord Rama “a major god and mythological hero, (who) had been born at the very spot on which the mosque stood. ”
CNN
“While millions of Hindus celebrated the opening of the much-awaited complex, which is seen by them as the birthplace of Ram, for the country’s minority Muslim population, it’s a painful reminder of religious divisions they fear are becoming more pronounced under Modi’s BJP government,” wrote Helen Regan and Rhea Mogul.
Guardian
As petals rained down and celebrities beamed, Modi unveiled his vision of a Hindu India
Mukul Kesavan bemoans how “In just over 30 years, India’s political class has travelled from condemning the demolition of the mosque, on the site of which the half-built temple now stands, as an act of sectarian vandalism, to celebrating it as the first act in the re-founding of a hitherto rootless republic. The idol of the infant Ram installed in a temple raised on the site of a razed mosque is to be the icon of this new Hindu nation.”
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