Ram Mandir float, a symbol of ‘Hate Not Heritage’ at New York’s India Parade causes outrage

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By Vijaylakshmi Nadar, Edited By Adam Rizvi, The India Observer, TIO: The Republic of India, a multi cultural and multi religious country, celebrated its 78th Independence day on August 15, 2024. India is home to millions of temples, churches and mosques, but has never felt a need to impose models of these religious places, as part of their expressions of freedom in all these years in India or abroad.

So why was the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir of Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, showcased in an Independence Day celebration float, not in India, but at the “largest India Day parade outside of India” in New York on August 18 ?

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Was it because the Indian diaspora lacked creative ideas on how best to showcase the country of their origin or was it something more sinister ?

The grand parade organized by the Federation of Indian Associations in New York/New Jersey (FIA), which organized the event under the aegis of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA), most likely had the nod from the Indian government led by Narendra Modi to include a model of the temple as part of their float, to send a message that their communal, divisive agenda is still alive.

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If Modi had not been dealt with the worst performance of his life as a political leader in the parliamentary elections which concluded in June this year, the temple float would have probably been part of independence day celebrations in India as well.

Modi mania was crushed by an exacting defeat not just in Ayodhya but nearby constituencies as well, where lord Ram is supposed to have set foot on. This despite the fact that the partially complete Ram Mandir was hurriedly inaugurated in a grand ceremony, disregarding the inauspicious time, in February this year. The grand inauguration was supposed to be Modi’s  trump card, to cruise through a third term comfortably.

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The contentious temple has been built on the remains of a 16th century Babri Masjid, which was violently demolished in December 1992, by a frenzied mob, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), now headed by Modi.

Local residents of Ayodhya in several media bites, have claimed how they have lost their small businesses and houses, to make way for the temple. Shankaracharya Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati, one of the four shankaracharyas and anointed custodians of the Hindu religion, has accused the Modi government of demolishing thousands of centuries old temples in Ayodhya and the holy town of Varanasi, to turn this temple into a tourist spectacle, rather than a place of worship. To benefit not the local residents but Modi’s capitalist buddies who have captured acres of lands in Ayodhya and surrounding areas, after forcibly acquiring them from the locals for a pittance.

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Ever since the Babri mosque was demolished in Ayodhya, communal tensions have been rife in the country between the Hindu majority and the Muslim minority, which reached epic proportions, after Modi was elected as the prime minister of India in May 2014.

The win activated his supporters in the US, many first generation immigrants, from Modi’s hometown in Gujarat, who have been defending him since the Gujarat riots in 2002. Modi had gained international notoriety for overseeing mass scale riots, deliberately triggered in Gujarat, under his watch killing over 3000 civilians, to give him an electoral edge. The Hindu Muslim divide in Gujarat became a cornerstone of his rule in Gujarat as the chief minister from 2001-2014. A model he sought to replicate as the prime minister, with the Ram Mandir.

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As a pantheistic religion, Hindus have the option of praying to over at least 30 million gods, including lords Vishnu and Shiva. Yet this focus on lord Rama, one of many incarnations of Vishnu, for political gains, is something most Hindus do not adhere to. One of the primary reasons for Modi’s below average performance at the hustings this year.

When it is clear that Ayodhya in particular and India in general have rejected the politics surrounding the Ram Mandir, why are the supposedly intelligent, rich, powerful Indian diaspora in the US, basing their national pride on this one temple alone ?

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Organizations like the Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR) which represent the liberal Hindus in the US, not aligning with the Hindutva ideology and the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), have long been raising concerns against the atrocities against the minorities in India by the Modi government and keeping a check on the rise of saffron extremism in a liberal country like the US.

They were quick to raise concerns of the presence of the Ram Mandir float in the India parade,  calling it “a symbol of hate, not heritage”. The Indian Muslims of North America too withdrew their own float designed to showcase the “accomplishment of Muslims”, in the growth of India. The purpose of the Mandir float is only to “intimidate us Muslims here”, a fact acknowledged by the New York city mayor Eric Adams, who issued a public statement against exhibiting any such religious symbolism, which would hurt the other community.

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A similar attempt by the Muslims to project their mosque of their choice at the parade as a “religious symbol” would have triggered outrage around the world.

Though the controversy over the float caught the attention of the US national media CNN and NBC, the organizers have gotten away with their outrageous symbolism this time around.

During the India parade in New Jersey in 2022, a bulldozer, carrying huge hoardings of the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, who loses no opportunity to harass and isolate the minority communities and Modi, who’s politics survives only on divisiveness and communal hatred, caused much outrage.

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Bulldozers have been used by the Yogi government to demolish the homes and properties of largely the minority community to terrorize them, without adhering to any legal procedures. Nothing could therefore be more palpable as a symbol of religious terrorism than this at a parade to celebrate Indian democracy. The outrage forced the organizers India Business Association to apologize publicly. The two senators from New Jersey, Robert Menendez and Cory Booker too had condemned the presence of the bulldozer in the parade.

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New York which used to celebrate both the Pakistan and Indian Independence day jointly with celebrations starting on the evening of the 14th, ending well past midnight usher in India’s independence day, mostly with Indian celebrities, have become more and more a showcase of divisive Hindutva ideology instead of a symbol of the vibrant democracy that India is and secularism since 2016. “Ram Mandir float is not just a cultural statement. It’s a troubling emblem of exclusion and intolerance”. The tolerance and inclusiveness that is the cornerstone of Indian democracy, when the only politicians invited from India for the parade are from the BJP.

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Besides BJP MP Manoj Tiwari, other guests included actress Sonakshi Sinha, who was trolled heavily by Modi’s supporters for marrying a Muslim Zaheer Iqbal who too was present at the parade and director/actor Pankaj Tripathi.

This year’s theme of the parade, “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – The World is One Family,” a phrase thrown randomly around by Hindu extremists in the US had Swami Avdheshanand Giri as the chief guest, who recently made headlines for criticizing Hindus who support Palestine, instead of Israel. This Swami is a staunch critic of the opposition leaders in India, in complete alignment with the BJP, turning the theme of the parade completely on its head.

Also Read more from this Author: Indian Business Association Apologizes for bulldozer politics at Independence Day Parade

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