Why is India’s Ram Mandir in Ayodhya contentious?

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi attends the opening of the grand temple of the Hindu god Lord Ram in Ayodhya, India, January 22, 2024. (India's Press Information Bureau/REUTERS)
Short Url
Updated 22 January 2024
Follow

Why is India’s Ram Mandir in Ayodhya contentious?

  • Temple replaces a 16th-century Mughal-era mosque razed by radical Hindu groups in 1992
  • Razed mosque is believed by many Hindus to have been built on the spot where Ram was born

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the consecration on Monday of a grand temple to the Hindu god-king Ram on a site believed to be his birthplace, in a historic event for the Hindu majority of the world’s most populous nation.
Coming months before Modi seeks a rare third term in general elections due by May, the event delivers on a campaign promise his political party made more than three decades ago, but also calls to mind some of India’s worst sectarian strife.

WHY DOES IT MATTER?
The idol represents Ram as a five-year-old child, as many Hindus consider the temple site to have been the deity’s birthplace and where he spent his childhood.
As the temple replaces a 16th-century Mughal-era mosque razed by radical Hindu groups in 1992, many Indians hail it as a sign of Hindu reawakening from centuries of foreign subjugation, including rule by Muslim dynasties such as the Mughals.
Analysts say Modi’s leadership of the ceremony symbolizes for supporters of his Hindu nationalist party that India is finally ready to end what they call appeasement of minorities and move toward their goal of building a Hindu-first nation.

WHAT ARE THE FEATURES OF THE NEW TEMPLE?
Construction began in 2020, with Modi laying the foundation stone of the temple to one of Hinduism’s principal deities on a 2.7-acre (one-hectare) plot within a complex that sprawls over 70 acres (28 hectares).
Supervised by a panel headed by Modi’s former chief of staff Nripendra Misra, construction cost an estimated 15 billion rupees ($181 million), funded by contributions amounting to more than twice that from 40 million people in India.

WHAT WAS THE RELIGIOUS DISPUTE ABOUT?
The Indian epic, the Ramayana, mentions Ayodhya, a town in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh nearly 700 km (435 miles) east of New Delhi, as the birthplace of Ram, whom Hindus believe to be a physical incarnation of Lord Vishnu.
The razed mosque dating from 1528, during the rule of Babur, India’s first Mughal emperor, is believed by many Hindus to have been built on the spot where Ram was born, following the demolition of an earlier temple there.
In Dec. 1949, authorities seized the mosque after Hindu activists placed idols of Ram inside the disputed structure. Court orders barred removal of the idols, and use as a mosque effectively ceased.
Hindu and Muslim groups filed separate claims over the site and the structure. In 1989, a high court ordered the maintenance of status quo.

HOW WAS THE MOSQUE RAZED?
Hindu and Muslim groups tried unsuccessfully to resolve the dispute through talks, before Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) launched a nationwide campaign in 1990 to build the temple.
Lal Krishna Advani, the president of the party at the time, embarked on a cross-country journey on a truck fitted out to resemble an ancient chariot.
It whipped up Hindu fervor, deepening rifts with Muslims but also catapulting the party to national prominence.
The BJP campaign climaxed in a rally in Ayodhya on Dec. 6, 1992, when a mob climbed the mosque and smashed its domes with axes and hammers, levelling the entire structure.
The event triggered sectarian riots in several parts of India, killing about 2,000 people, mostly Muslims.
Muslims are a minority in mainly Hindu India, making up about 14 percent of its 1.42 billion people.
As a foot soldier of the party at the time, Modi helped organize the chariot’s journey, which began in his home state of Gujarat.
He rode to the office of prime minister in 2014 on a Hindu nationalist platform that included the promise to build the temple.
Temple construction began after the Supreme Court permitted it in 2019 on condition that Muslims received another plot for a mosque.


Afghan refugees stuck in Pakistan as Germany halts entry program

Updated 4 sec ago
Follow

Afghan refugees stuck in Pakistan as Germany halts entry program

BERLIN/ISLAMABAD: In a cramped guesthouse in Pakistan’s capital, 25-year-old Kimia spends her days sketching women — dancing, playing, resisting — in a notebook that holds what’s left of her hopes.

A visual artist and women’s rights advocate, she fled Afghanistan in 2024 after being accepted on to a German humanitarian admission program aimed at Afghans considered at risk under the Taliban.

A year later, Kimia is stuck in limbo.

Thousands of kilometers away in Germany, an election in February where migration dominated public debate and a change of government in May resulted in the gradual suspension of the program.

Now the new center-right coalition intends to close it.

The situation echoes that of nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared to settle in the United States, but who then found themselves in limbo in January after US President Donald Trump took office and suspended refugee programs.

Kimia’s interview at the German embassy which she hoped would result in a flight to the country and the right to live there, was abruptly canceled in April. Meanwhile, Germany pays for her room, meals and medical care in Islamabad.

“All my life comes down to this interview,” she told Reuters. She gave only her artist name for fear of reprisal.

“We just want to find a place that is calm and safe,” she said of herself and the other women at the guesthouse.

The admission program began in October 2022, intending to bring up to 1,000 Afghans per month to Germany who were deemed at risk because of their work in human rights, justice, politics or education, or due to their gender, religion or sexual orientation.

However, fewer than 1,600 arrived in over two years due to holdups and the cancelation of flights.

Today, around 2,400 Afghans are waiting to travel to Germany, the German foreign ministry said. Whether they will is unclear. NGOs say 17,000 more are in the early stages of selection and application under the now dormant scheme.

The foreign ministry said entry to Germany through the program was suspended pending a government review, and the government will continue to care for and house those already in the program.

It did not answer Reuters’ questions on the number of canceled interviews, or how long the suspension would last.

Reuters spoke with eight Afghans living in Pakistan and Germany, migration lawyers and advocacy groups, who described the fate of the program as part of a broader curb on Afghan asylum claims in Germany and an assumption that Sunni men in particular are not at risk under the Taliban.

The German government says there is no specific policy of reducing the number of Afghan migrants. However, approval rates for Afghan asylum applicants dropped to 52 percent in early 2025, down from 74 percent in 2024, according to the Federal Migration Office (BAMF).

POLITICAL SHIFT

Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021. Since May 2021 Germany has admitted about 36,500 vulnerable Afghans by various pathways including former local staff, the government said.

Thorsten Frei, chief of staff to Germany’s new chancellor Friedrich Merz, said humanitarian migration has now reached levels that “exceed the integration capacity of society.”

“As long as we have irregular and illegal migration to Germany, we simply cannot implement voluntary admission programs.”

The interior ministry said programs like the one for Afghans will be phased out and they are reviewing how to do so.

Several Afghans are suing the government over the suspension. Matthias Lehnert, a lawyer representing them, said

Germany could not simply suspend their admissions without certain conditions such as the person no longer being at risk.

Since former chancellor Angela Merkel opened Germany’s borders in 2015 to over a million refugees, public sentiment has shifted, partly as a result of several deadly attacks by asylum seekers. The far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD), capitalizing on the anti-migrant sentiment, surged to a historic second-place finish in February’s election.

Afghans Reuters spoke with said they feared they were being unfairly associated with the perpetrators, and this was putting their own lives at risk if they had to return to Afghanistan.

“I’m so sorry about those people who are injured or killed ... but it’s not our fault,” Kimia said.

Afghan Mohammad Mojib Razayee, 30, flew to Germany from Cyprus in March under a European Union voluntary solidarity mechanism, after a year of waiting with 100 other refugees. He said he was at risk after criticizing the Taliban. Two weeks after seeking asylum in Berlin, his application was rejected.

He was shocked at the ruling. BAMF found no special protection needs in his case, a spokesperson said.

“It’s absurd — but not surprising. The decision-making process is simply about luck, good or bad,” said Nicolas Chevreux, a legal adviser with AWO counseling center in Berlin.

Chevreux said he believes Afghan asylum cases have been handled differently since mid-2024, after a mass stabbing at a rally in the city of Mannheim, in which six people were injured and a police officer was killed. An Afghan asylum seeker was charged and is awaiting trial.

’YOU DON’T LIVE’

Spending most days in her room, surrounded by English and German textbooks, Kimia says returning to Afghanistan is unthinkable. Her art could make her a target.

“If I go back, I can’t follow my dreams — I can’t work, I can’t study. It’s like you just breathe, but you don’t live.”

Under Taliban rule, women are banned from most public life, face harassment by morality police if unaccompanied by a male guardian, and must follow strict dress codes, including face coverings. When security forces raided homes, Kimia said, she would frantically hide her artwork.

The Taliban say they respect women’s rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic law and local culture and that they are not targeting former foes.

Hasseina, is a 35-year-old journalist and women’s rights activist from Kabul who fled to Pakistan and was accepted as an applicant on to the German program.

Divorced and under threat from both the Taliban and her ex-husband’s family, who she says have threatened to kill her and take her daughter, she said returning is not an option.

The women are particularly alarmed as Pakistan is intensifying efforts to forcibly return Afghans. The country says its crackdown targets all undocumented foreigners for security reasons. Pakistan’s foreign ministry did not respond to request for comment on how this affects Afghans awaiting German approval.

The German foreign ministry has said it is aware of two families promised admission to Germany who were detained for deportation, and it was working with Pakistan authorities to stop this.

Marina, 25, fled Afghanistan after being separated from her family. Her mother, a human rights lawyer, was able to get to Germany. Marina has been waiting in Pakistan to follow her for nearly two years with her baby.

“My life is stuck, I want to go to Germany, I want to work, I want to contribute. Here I am feeling so useless,” she said.

Four pro-Palestinian activists charged over UK military base break-in

Updated 37 min 23 sec ago
Follow

Four pro-Palestinian activists charged over UK military base break-in

  • British lawmakers voted on Wednesday to ban Palestine Action as a terrorist organization

Four pro-Palestinian activists have been charged after breaking into a military air base in central England last month and damaging two planes in protest against Britain’s support for Israel.

Counter-terrorism police said the charges were for conspiracy to enter a prohibited place knowingly for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the UK, and conspiracy to commit criminal damage.

The four, aged between 22 and 35, remain in custody and are due to appear in a London court on Thursday. Police said they will present evidence to court linking the offenses to terrorism.

The campaign group Palestine Action has said it was behind the incident on June 20, when the air base in Oxfordshire in central England was broken into and red paint was sprayed over two planes used for refueling and transport.

British lawmakers voted on Wednesday to ban Palestine Action as a terrorist organization. The group has condemned the decision as an “abuse of power” and announced plans to challenge it in court.

The police statement said those charged had caused 7 million pounds ($9.55 million) worth of damage to the two aircraft at the Brize Norton Royal Air Force base.

Palestine Action has routinely targeted companies in Britain with links to Israel, including Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems. 2


Hotels and homes evacuated on Greek island of Crete as wildfire burns out of control

Updated 03 July 2025
Follow

Hotels and homes evacuated on Greek island of Crete as wildfire burns out of control

  • Homes were reported damaged as flames swept through hillside forests, fanned by strong winds
  • As fires crested ridgelines and edged toward residential areas, the blaze sent clouds of ash into the night sky

ATHENS, Greece: A fast-moving wildfire whipped by gale-force winds burned through the night and into Thursday on Greece’s southern island of Crete, prompting the evacuation of more than 1,500 people from hotels and homes.

The fire department said 230 firefighters backed up by 10 water-dropping aircraft were battling the flames, which have burned through forest and farmland in Crete’s Ierapetra area on the island’s southern coast. Two people were evacuated by boat overnight, while six private boats were on standby in case further evacuations by sea became necessary, the coast guard said.

Homes were reported damaged as flames swept through hillside forests, fanned by strong winds.

“It’s a very difficult situation. The fire is very hard to contain. Right now, they cannot contain it,” Nektarios Papadakis, a civil protection official at the regional authority, told The Associated Press overnight.

“The tourists who were moved out are all okay. They have been taken to an indoor basketball arena and hotels in other regions of the island,” he said.

The Fire Service and a civil protection agency issued mobile phone alerts for the evacuations and appealed to residents not to return to try to save their property.

As fires crested ridgelines and edged toward residential areas, the blaze sent clouds of ash into the night sky, illuminated by the headlights of emergency vehicles and water trucks that lined the coastal road near the resorts of Ferma and Achlia on the southeast of Crete.

Several residents were treated for breathing difficulties, officials said, but there were no immediate reports of serious injuries.

Crete is one of Greece’s most popular destinations for both foreign and domestic tourists.

The risk of wildfires remained very high across Crete and parts of southern Greece Thursday, according to a daily bulletin issued by the Fire Service.

Wildfires are frequent in the country during its hot, dry summers, and the fire department has already tackled dozens across Greece so far this year.

In 2018, a massive fire swept through the seaside town of Mati, east of Athens, trapping people in their homes and on roads as they tried to flee. More than 100 died, including some who drowned while trying to swim away from the flames.


Ryanair cancels 170 flights due to French air traffic controllers strikes

Updated 03 July 2025
Follow

Ryanair cancels 170 flights due to French air traffic controllers strikes

Ryanair said it was forced to cancel 170 flights affecting over 30,000 passengers due to a national strike by air traffic controllers in France, planned on Thursday and Friday.

“In addition to flights to/from France being canceled, this strike will also affect all French overflights,” the Irish airline said in a statement.


Thailand set for another acting PM after cabinet reshuffle

Updated 03 July 2025
Follow

Thailand set for another acting PM after cabinet reshuffle

  • Power passed to transport minister and deputy prime minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit who took office for only one full day
  • The revolving door of leadership comes as the kingdom is battling to revive a spluttering economy and secure a US trade deal averting President Donald Trump’s looming threat of a 36 percent tariff

Bangkok: Thailand’s king is scheduled Thursday to swear in a new cabinet in a reshuffle that will see a third person in a week take on the role as the country’s prime minister.

The Southeast Asian nation’s top office was plunged into turmoil on Tuesday when the Constitutional Court suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra pending an ethics probe which could take months.

Power passed to transport minister and deputy prime minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit who took office for only one full day, as the bombshell was dropped in an awkward interim ahead of the reshuffle.

When former defense minister Phumtham Wechayachai is sworn into his new position as interior minister he will also take on a deputy prime minister role outranking Suriya’s — thus becoming the acting premier.

Before Paetongtarn was ousted she assigned herself the role of culture minister in the new cabinet, meaning she is set to keep a perch in the upper echelons of power.

She arrived at the Government House on Thursday morning for a group portrait before heading to the Grand Palace to meet King Maha Vajiralongkorn for the closed-door oath-taking.

The newly-appointed cabinet is set to hold its first meeting Thursday afternoon, with a royal statement expected in the evening.

The revolving door of leadership comes as the kingdom is battling to revive a spluttering economy and secure a US trade deal averting President Donald Trump’s looming threat of a 36 percent tariff.

Phumtham is considered a loyal lieutenant to the suspended Paetongtarn and her father Thaksin Shinawatra, the powerful patriarch of a dynasty which has dominated Thai 21st-century politics.

Thaksin-linked parties have been jousting with the pro-military, pro-conservative establishment since the early 2000s, but analysts say the family’s political brand has now entered decline.

The 71-year-old Phumtham earned the nickname “Big Comrade” for his association with a left-wing youth movement of the 1970s, but transitioned to politics through a role in Thaksin’s telecoms empire.

In previous cabinets he held the defense and commerce portfolios, and spent a spell as acting prime minister after a crisis engulfed the top office last year.

Paetongtarn has been hobbled over a longstanding territorial dispute between Thailand and Cambodia, which boiled over into cross-border clashes in May, killing one Cambodian soldier.

When she made a diplomatic call to Cambodian ex-leader Hun Sen, she called him “uncle” and referred to a Thai military commander as her “opponent,” according to a leaked recording causing widespread backlash.

A conservative party abandoned her ruling coalition — sparking the cabinet reshuffle — accusing her of kowtowing to Cambodia and undermining the military.

The Constitutional Court said there was “sufficient cause to suspect” Paetongtarn breached ministerial ethics in the diplomatic spat.
bur-sjc/jts/mtp