Asia-Pacific

Indian PM Modi’s showpiece temple springs a monsoon leak

Incident at half-completed temple, believed so far to cost €200m, causes severe embarrassment to federal government

Devotees queue for the Ram Mandir temple after it opens in January in Ayodhya, India. Photograph: Ritesh Shukla/Getty Images

Rahul Bedi in New Delhi
Mon Jul 1 2024 - 19:45

The roof of the grand temple dedicated to the Hindu god Ram, which prime minister Narendra Modi inaugurated at Ayodhya in northern India with great fanfare in January, has sprung a major leak in the ongoing monsoon rains, causing severe embarrassment to the federal government.

The temple’s head priest Satyendra Das said no provision existed for rainwater to drain away from the shrine’s roof, adding that last week’s downpour had seeped into the sanctum where Ram’s idol is installed.

“It is surprising that engineers from all over India were involved in building the temple, but no one seems to have known that if it rained, its roof would leak,” Mr Das told the NDTV news channel amid widespread social media criticism of the Modi administration over the issue.

The half-completed temple, believed so far to have cost the equivalent of €200 million to build, was opened in January by Mr Modi, who said it signalled the advent of a new era for Hindus.

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Political commentators, however, claimed its investiture had been fast-forwarded in an attempt to influence India’s majority Hindu voters – many of whom are Ram devotees – into voting for Mr Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recent general elections.

But the Ram temple, built on the spot where Hindu zealots had demolished a 16th century mosque in 1992, failed to stimulate voters into backing the BJP.

The party did not secure a parliamentary majority to enable it return to power for a third consecutive five-year term, compelling it to forge a coalition with regional parties to form the federal government.

The BJP lost the Faizabad parliamentary seat that incorporates Ayodhya, as voters were irked over the manner in which the temple’s construction was carried out.

According to media reports some 2,200 shops, 800 houses, 30 temples and nine mosques were demolished to construct the Ram temple and its environs, including an international airport, rendering thousands of indigent people homeless.

Nripendra Mishra, the prime minister’s close confidant and head of the temple construction committee, rejected head priest Das’s claims over the shrine’s roof leak.

“There was no water leakage, but the rain water came down from the pipes fixed to install electric wires” he said, adding that the water would stop entering the temple when its second floor was built.

The monsoon shower also damaged the vast infrastructure constructed around the temple, including the 14km-long Ram Path or highway leading to it which has caved in at more than a dozen places. Homes and buildings on either side of it, as well as the only local hospital, were also flooded.

“The poor quality construction of Ram Path has brought shame on all of us,” said Awadesh Prasad, the region’s newly elected opposition MP. He said Ram’s name, has been brought into disrepute and called for an official inquiry into the mishap.

Rahul Bedi

Rahul Bedi

Rahul Bedi is a contributor to The Irish Times based in New Delhi

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