Modi inaugurates Ram temple: Here's what critical overseas media reports said

THE consecration of India's much awaited Ram temple in the holy northern town of Ayodhya on Monday (22) has drawn worldwide attention. While Indians celebrated the event both at home and abroad with much fanfare, there were media reports that gave the event more critical coverage.

Here we will look at the reports some frontline news outlets carried about the inauguration of the temple:

The CNN carried a report headlined 'India's Ayodhya Ram Mandir temple inaugurated by Modi' in which it said for the South Asian country's minority Muslim population, the event will be a "painful reminder of religious divisions that have grown more pronounced under Modi's rule" even though many Hindus will be celebrating the moment.

The New York Times, which has in the past taken a critical stand on India's space achievements, said under a report titled 'Modi Opens a Giant Temple, a Triumph Toward a Hindu-First India': "The omnipresent leader (Modi), in mixing religion and politics and tapping into the vast resources at his service, has achieved what his predecessors could not: turning a diverse and argumentative Indian society into something resembling a monolith that falls in line behind him. To question him is to question Hindu values. And that is akin to blasphemy."

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It also said in the report, "Mr. Modi, now the country’s prime minister, inaugurated the Ram temple in Ayodhya on Monday — the crowning achievement of a national movement aimed at establishing Hindu supremacy in India by rallying the country’s Hindu majority across castes and tribes."

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The Time carried an article a few days ahead of the consecration, the title of which read 'India’s Ayodhya Temple Is a Huge Monument to Hindu Supremacy'. In the piece, author Audrey Truschke, a professor who teaches South Asian history at Rutgers University, wrote, "The Ayodhya temple’s inauguration portends dark times ahead not just for India’s Muslims but also many Hindus who remain committed to pluralism and tolerance. Hindu supremacists have long sought to reduce the broad-based Hindu religious tradition to their hateful political ideology. The Ayodhya temple is a sizeable step toward that goal."

In a report headlined 'Modi inaugurates Hindu temple on site of razed mosque in India', The Guardian said, "More than three decades after a mob of militant Hindu radicals razed a mosque to the ground in the Indian town of Ayodhya, the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has inaugurated the new Hindu temple that will stand in its place."

It also cited Kapil Komireddi, the author of Malevolent Republic: A Short History of New India who said the close alignment between Modi and the Ram temple was indicative of the threat posed by his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party to India as a secular republic whose constitution says all religions are equal. He also called the event a "purely political spectacle".

The BBC cited critics in a report headlined 'Ayodhya Ram Mandir: India PM Modi inaugurates Hindu temple on razed Babri mosque site' saying they accused the Modi government of exploiting celebration in a country which is declared secular by its constitution.

"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," it said.

Al Jazeera said in a report titled 'India’s Modi opens Ram temple built on site of demolished mosque in Ayodhya', "Monday’s consecration of the temple, dedicated to Lord Ram, embodies the triumph of Modi’s muscular Hindu nationalist politics and marks an unofficial start to his re-election campaign in general elections scheduled later this year."

Dawn, a major newspaper published in India's neighbour Pakistan, carried an AFP article titled in which it said, "India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a temple on Monday that embodies the triumph of his muscular Hindu nationalist politics, galvanising loyalists in an unofficial start to his re-election campaign this year.

"Modi, in flowing golden-coloured traditional dress, unveiled the black stone idol to the deity Ram in the heart of the 50-metre temple, 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."