{"id":90541,"date":"2026-09-08T22:13:55","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T22:13:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/90541\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T22:13:55","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T22:13:55","slug":"was-this-a-state-visit-indian-opposition-leader-raises-serious-questions-over-paris-baps-temple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/90541\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Was this a state visit?\u2019 Indian opposition leader raises serious questions over Paris BAPS temple"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title = \"\u2018Was this a state visit?\u2019 Indian opposition leader raises serious questions over Paris BAPS temple\"   width=\"580\" height=\"385\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/R2ztLvNuQSQ\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<br \/>\n\u2018Was this a state visit?\u2019 Indian opposition leader raises serious questions over Paris BAPS temple<br \/>\n<br \/>\nFran\u00e7ois Picard is pleased to welcome Anish Gawande. Hee sees the controversy surrounding the inauguration of the BAPS temple near Paris as more than an isolated dispute over the treatment of female\u00a0staff at the Eiffel Tower. From his perspective, the incident exposes a broader and insufficiently scrutinized intersection of religion, diplomacy, political power, labor practices, and diaspora politics.\u00a0At the center of his argument is an ambiguity over the boundary between private religious\u00a0state-sanctioned\u00a0activity. Gawande questions why senior Indian diplomatic representation and Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s remarks invoking India-France relations accompanied the inauguration if the ceremony was not official. He highlights Modi\u2019s longstanding political association with BAPS, while also invoking controversies and allegations surrounding the organization\u2019s labor practices abroad.Gawande challenges the notion that the new temple is solely representative of Hinduism in France, highlighting the country\u2019s longer and more diverse Hindu traditions and communities. And he warns that the Eiffel Tower controversy may acquire a political life beyond BAPS itself, particularly if it becomes material for far-right narratives about immigrants, religion, and national identity in France. His central contention is therefore institutional as much as political: the controversy should prompt scrutiny not only of what happened at the Eiffel Tower, but of how the project was facilitated, how land was allocated, whether labor protections were respected, and where the boundaries between religious organizations and state power were drawn.<br \/>\n#BAPS #India #France<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udd14 Subscribe to France 24 now: https:\/\/f24.my\/YTen<br \/>\n\ud83d\udd34 LIVE &#8211; Watch FRANCE 24 English 24\/7 here: https:\/\/f24.my\/YTliveEN<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udf0d Read the latest International News and Top Stories: https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/<\/p>\n<p>Like us on Facebook: https:\/\/f24.my\/FBen<br \/>\nFollow us on X: https:\/\/f24.my\/Xen<br \/>\nBluesky: https:\/\/f24.my\/BSen and Threads: https:\/\/f24.my\/THen<br \/>\nBrowse the news in pictures on Instagram: https:\/\/f24.my\/IGen<br \/>\nDiscover our TikTok videos: https:\/\/f24.my\/TKen<br \/>\nGet the latest top stories on Telegram: https:\/\/f24.my\/TGen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018Was this a state visit?\u2019 Indian opposition leader raises serious questions over Paris BAPS temple Fran\u00e7ois Picard is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[53,4050,76,50,22,23,61,20,21,588,19719,22990,77,536,71298],"class_list":["post-90541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france24","tag-asia-pacific","tag-eiffel-tower","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-france-24","tag-france-24-english","tag-france-24-guest","tag-france24","tag-france24-english","tag-india","tag-narendra-modi","tag-nationalism","tag-paris","tag-religion","tag-secularism"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@videos\/117237747719741994","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}