Controversy erupts over Hindu temple float at New York's India Day parade

[August 17, 2024]  By Kanishka Singh

(Reuters) - A carnival float featuring a Hindu temple that is planned for an upcoming India Day Parade in New York City has sparked controversy, with a number of groups calling it anti-Muslim and saying it should be removed from the event.

The float depicts a temple to the Hindu god Lord Ram, which was consecrated earlier this year on a site in Ayodhya, India, believed to be his birthplace. But the temple site has long been bitterly contested between Hindus and Muslims, and in the early 1990s a mosque that stood there was razed by a Hindu fundamentalist mob.

Some U.S.-based organizations have written a letter to New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul, calling the float anti-Muslim and saying it glorified the mosque's takedown.

Among groups who signed the letter were 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 said.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, which is organizing the float, says it represents a Hindu place of worship and aims to glorify a deity seen as an important part of Indian and Hindu identity. The Hindu American Foundation said it was an exercise of free speech.

The Federation of Indian Associations, which runs Sunday's event, said the parade represents India's cultural diversity and will feature floats from a range of communities.

"There's no room for hate," Adams said at a press conference earlier this week. "If there is a float or a person in the parade that's promoting hate, they should not."

Hindu devotees wait to enter the Hindu god Lord Ram temple after its inauguration in Ayodhya, India, January 23, 2024. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo

Adams' office later told the Associated Press that the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment right to free speech prevents the city from denying a permit or requiring that a float or parade's message be changed simply because it does not agree with the content.

Hindus say the site in Ayodhya was holy to them long before Muslim Mughals razed a temple there to build the 1528 Babri mosque, destroyed in 1992. The mosque's destruction was followed by nationwide riots that killed some 2,000 people, mainly Muslims. In 2019, the Indian Supreme Court handed over the land to Hindus.

Human rights experts say India has seen a rise in attacks, including violence and discrimination, on minorities in recent years under Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusations that Modi denies.

The annual New York City parade takes place three days after India's Independence Day.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

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