New Delhi, India has brusquely rejected Pakistan’s expression of “deep concern” over the ceremonial hoisting of a saffron religious flag atop the newly completed Ram Temple in Ayodhya, telling Islamabad to focus instead on its own “abysmal” treatment of religious minorities.
The sharp exchange came a day after Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, personally raised the dharmadhwaja (victory flag) on the temple’s golden spire on Tuesday, marking the formal completion of the grand shrine built on the site where a 16th-century Babri mosque was demolished by a Hindu nationalist mob in 1992.
“We have seen the reported remarks and reject them with the contempt they deserve,” Randhir Jaiswal, spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, said on Wednesday. “Rather than delivering hypocritical homilies, Pakistan would do better to turn its gaze inwards and focus on its own abysmal human rights record.”
Pakistan’s foreign ministry had on Tuesday described the flag-raising as evidence of “a broader pattern of pressure on religious minorities in India” and accused New Delhi of a “deliberate attempt at eroding Muslim cultural and religious heritage under the influence of majoritarian Hindutva ideology”.
Mr Jaiswal retorted that Islamabad had “no moral standing to lecture others”, pointing to what he called Pakistan’s “deeply stained record of bigotry, repression and systemic mistreatment of its minorities”.
The completion of the ₹1,800 crore ($210m) Ram Temple — one of Mr Modi’s signature projects — has been a moment of triumph for his Bharatiya Janata Party and its Hindu nationalist base, fulfilling a decades-old campaign promise. Critics, including opposition parties and rights groups, have warned that the temple’s construction on the ruins of the Babri Masjid has deepened communal divisions.
The latest diplomatic spat underscores the persistent bitterness between the nuclear-armed neighbours, whose relations have been frozen since 2019, when India revoked the limited autonomy of Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir.
Analysts say neither side is likely to seek de-escalation soon, with domestic political considerations on both sides of the border reinforcing hardline stances on symbolic religious issues.
