How Foreign Media Reported Ram Temple Inauguration? (image: twitter.com/BJP4India)
As the Ram Temple consecration event was covered as national event of significance by the Indian media, with minute-by-minute coverage, how foreign media looked at the event and the content it carried in their news report was interesting to observe.
BBC reported the event with the headline: “Ayodhya Ram Mandir: India PM Modi inaugurates Hindu temple on razed Babri mosque site”. After the initial sentence on PM Narendra Modi”s inauguration of the temple, the BBC mentions that the temple came up replacing the mosque, which was torn down by Hindu mobs in 1992, resulting in riots. They writes that the opposition parties and some Hindu seers boycotted the event , and also added how critics view it as exploitation of a religious celebration. “General elections are due in India in the next few months and Mr Modi”s political rivals say the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be seeking votes in the temple”s name in a country where 80% of the population is Hindu,” BBC quotes.
Interestingly, CNN had a live coverage of the temple inauguration ceremony. They have published several short copies carrying different facets of the event, and the latest was about snippets of Prime Minister Narendra Modi speech inaugurating the temple. In the copy, along with reporting Modi”s speech and about event unfolded, CNN wrote: “Modi did not directly mention the Babri Masjid in his speech, nor the country”s Muslims, many of whom feel pain and sadness at the events that have unfolded in Ayodhya.”
Associated Press under the headline, “A temple to one of Hinduism’s holiest deities has opened in Ayodhya, India. Here’s what it means” covers the news about Ram Temple, the consecration event, the legend of Ram, and the controversy. In the beginning of the report, they highlighted the spectacle of the event, and the grand opulence in which it spans. However, they referred it as “controversial grand temple”, and mentioned that “the temple was built over a razed mosque”. AP also added that most political opposition leaders boycotted the meeting. “Ahead of the upcoming general election, Modi’s Hindu nationalist party is using the elaborate consecration ceremony to lobby the country’s Hindu majority” AP reported.
Al Jazeera, meanwhile, published today an explainer titled, “Why is India’s Ram temple in Ayodhya controversial?”. In the article, it is detailed about the controversy behind the Ram Temple, major events in the divide over the Ram Temple, the contested site, and when the Ram Temple consecration will take place. In the last segment, it explains, “How are Modi and India’s 2024 elections linked to the Ram temple?”. “Modi’s consecration of the temple fulfils that decades-long pledge, and comes just weeks before national elections,” Al Jazeera adds.
