India’s PM boosts Hindutva agenda with Ram temple ceremony amid coronavirus

Name: Indians react to re-election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Uploaded: 2020-08-04T10:45:14.000Z
Duration: 2 min 23 s
Description: Indians react to re-election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi

The Ayodhya temple event is on the first anniversary of the revocation of Article 370 that took away special rights for Muslim-majority Kashmir

Narendra Modi’s presence at the event comes days after he attended a cabinet meeting with Covid-19 positive interior minister Amit Shah

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Narendra Modi has been India’s prime minister since 2014, and was re-elected last year with a larger mandate. Photo: Reuters

Kunal Purohit

Published: 6:45pm, 4 Aug 2020Updated: 10:24pm, 4 Aug 2020

On Wednesday, just before 1pm, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be joined by some 175 people – including 135 religious leaders of various traditions – in a groundbreaking ceremony for a temple built in honour of Hindu god-king Ram in the northern Indian city of Ayodhya.

Modi’s presence at the event will come days after he attended a cabinet meeting with home minister Amit Shah, who tested positive for Covid-19 on Sunday, and has raised concerns about others falling ill as India battles a steep rise in coronavirus infections.

India has recorded 370,000 new cases over the past week alone, and is expected to pass the 2 million mark in the coming days. It already has the third-highest total in the world, behind only the United States and Brazil.

Also raising eyebrows is Modi’s decision to inaugurate the site on August 5, the first anniversary of New Delhi’s controversial decision to strip the state of Jammu & Kashmir of its autonomy and divide it into two federally administered territories – ostensibly to promote the region’s development and restrain a surge of separatist militancy fuelled by its Muslim residents.

Critics have accused Modi’s administration – he has been India’s premier since 2014 and was re-elected last year with a larger mandate – of fomenting communal mistrust with its Hindu-nationalist (or Hindutva) policies, including passing the Citizenship Amendment Act which fast-tracks the process to gain Indian citizenship for non-Muslim refugees.

Dr Subir Sinha, a senior lecturer in institutions and development at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), said holding the ceremony on the anniversary of the Kashmir decision was symbolic of the government’s “finger in the wound” style of politics.

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Indians react to re-election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi

“The choice of the date is precisely to remind Muslims of that date last year when Kashmir’s status changed and its people have been living a version of mass incarceration, restriction and collective punishment,” he said.