New York: Don’t allow Ram temple float in India Day Parade, it’s ‘anti-Muslim’, faith groups demand
The organisers claimed that the display is a ‘symbol of cultural significance and a testament to a historic moment for the global Indian community’.
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The Indian American Muslim Council, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and 20 other faith-based groups in the United States have called for the removal of an “anti-Muslim” tableau depicting Ayodhya’s Ram temple from the India Day Parade that will be held in New York on Sunday.
The Federation of Indian Associations is organising the parade to mark India’s Independence Day. Now in its forty-second year, the event is attended by several thousand persons every year, reported AP.
The contentious tableau is being organised by the United States arm of the Hindutva group Vishwa Hindu Parishad, reported The New York Times. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad is affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the parent organisation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
“This float presence represents these groups’ desire to conflate Hindu nationalist ideology with Indian identity,” the Indian American Muslim Council and others wrote in a letter this month to New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams. “This is not merely a cultural display, but a vulgar celebration of anti-Muslim heat, bigotry and religious supremacy.”
The Ram temple, which is under construction, was inaugurated in a ceremony led by Prime Minister Modi on January 22.
It is being built on the site of the Babri mosque, which was demolished by Hindutva extremists in December 1992 because they...
