FIRST & FOREMOST ASIAN WEEKLY IN EUROPE
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Let noble thoughts come to us from every side
15 - 21 AUGUST 2020 - VOL 49 ISSUE 16
CELEBRATING BRAND ‘INDIA’
inside: Lord Rami Ranger reacts to social media controversy on Khalistan: “Preet Gill is confused” SEE PAGE - 8
BAME Britons twice as likely to have lost their job SEE PAGE - 10
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi praying at the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya at the Bhoomi Pooja on August 5, 2020 Shefali Saxena On November 9, 2019, the Supreme Court of India gave its final verdict on the Ayodhya dispute and declared that the disputed holy site of Ayodhya in northern India should be given to Hindus who want a temple built there, the country's Supreme Court has ruled. The verdict was touted as “a decisive turn away from secularism for India”. However, in a letter to the Financial Times, Utkarsh Sharma of Somerville College, University of Oxford, UK wrote, “The temple is not being constructed after an order by Prime Minister Narendra Modi or the Bharatiya Janata Party, the political party with which he is associated, but following a final judgement from the supreme court of India after 134 years. As your correspondent also accepts,
the construction was permitted because it was legally established that a mosque was built in the 16th century, by an invader, on the site of a temple, which was many thousands of years older. While actions of the mob, frustrated at the stalled court proceedings, in taking matters into their own hands in 1992, were reprehensible, I’d suggest that given the unique, irreplaceable and continuing importance of the birthplace of Lord Ram for the Hindus, the supreme court was correct to permit reconstruction of a temple on-site and to offer compensatory land for the mosque, after mediation failed. Finally, I reject your implication that the ceremony marked a triumph only for the Hindus or the ruling BJP. It is a moment of triumph for a nation which has had a long history of oppression at the hands of invaders, who merely
happen to be of Islamic faith, like Babur who built a mosque on the site of a razed temple.” Ahead of India’s 74th Independence Day, Modi addressed the nation at one of the most historic events of the century. He chanted "Siyavar Ram Chandra ki Jai!" and “Jai Shri Ram!” as he laid the foundation of the Ram Janmabhoomi Temple with a 40 Kg silver brick in Ayodhya on August 5, 2020 (see full story on page 18). In the middle of a global pandemic in March 2020, the PM announced the re-telecast of Ramanand Sagar’s iconic TV show Ramayan on Doordarshan after three decades of its broadcast. It became the most-watched entertainment show in the world with 77 million viewers on April 16.
Continued on page - 18
A Beautiful Journey SEE PAGE - 11
Sad saga: Madhvani kins infighting SEE PAGE - 17
Indian Independence Day Special SEE PAGE - 19 - 29