By Kanishka Singh
(Reuters) – A carnival float that includes a Hindu temple that’s deliberate for an upcoming India Day Parade in New York Metropolis has sparked controversy, with various teams calling it anti-Muslim and saying it ought to be faraway from the occasion.
The float depicts a temple to the Hindu god Lord Ram, which was consecrated earlier this 12 months on a web site in Ayodhya, India, believed to be his birthplace. However the temple web site has lengthy been bitterly contested between Hindus and Muslims, and within the early Nineties a mosque that stood there was razed by a Hindu fundamentalist mob.
Some U.S.-based organizations have written a letter to New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul, calling the float anti-Muslim and saying it glorified the mosque’s takedown.
Amongst teams who signed the letter had been the Council on American Islamic Relations, the Indian American Muslim Council and Hindus for Human Rights.
“This float’s presence represents these groups’ desire to conflate Hindu nationalist ideology with Indian identity, but India is a secular country,” the letter mentioned.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, which is organizing the float, says it represents a Hindu place of worship and goals to glorify a deity seen as an necessary a part of Indian and Hindu identification. The Hindu American Basis mentioned it was an train of free speech.
The Federation of Indian Associations, which runs Sunday’s occasion, mentioned the parade represents India’s cultural range and can function floats from a variety of communities.
“There’s no room for hate,” Adams mentioned at a press convention earlier this week. “If there is a float or a person in the parade that’s promoting hate, they should not.”
Adams’ workplace later instructed the Related Press that the U.S. Structure’s First Modification proper to free speech prevents the town from denying a allow or requiring {that a} float or parade’s message be modified just because it doesn’t agree with the content material.
Hindus say the positioning in Ayodhya was holy to them lengthy earlier than Muslim Mughals razed a temple there to construct the 1528 Babri mosque, destroyed in 1992. The mosque’s destruction was adopted by nationwide riots that killed some 2,000 folks, primarily Muslims. In 2019, the Indian Supreme Court docket handed over the land to Hindus.
Human rights consultants say India has seen an increase in assaults, together with violence and discrimination, on minorities in recent times underneath Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusations that Modi denies.
The annual New York Metropolis parade takes place three days after India’s Independence Day.
