"Country With Stained Record Of Bigotry": India After Pak's Ayodhya Remarks

India on Wednesday reacted strongly to Pakistan's remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi raising a saffron flag at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, "We have seen the reported remarks and reject them with the contempt they deserve. As a country with a deeply stained record of bigotry, repression, and systemic mistreatment of its minorities. Pakistan has no moral standing to lecture others. Rather than delivering hypocritical homilies, Pakistan would do better to turn its gaze inwards and focus on its own abysmal human rights record."

Pak had protested the raising of the saffron flag, labelling the move an attempt to increase pressure on minority communities in India and to erase Muslim heritage. The reference was to the Ram Temple having been built at the site of the demolished 16th century Babri Masjid.

The masjid was torn down on December 6, 1992, by a right-wing Hindu mob.

In 2019 the Supreme Court settled long-running legal challenge to the demolition, ruling in favour of Hindu plaintiffs.

In 2020, a year later, the Prime Minister laid the foundation stone for the Ram Temple and, four years later, in a grand ceremony, presided over its consecration.

On Tuesday he hoisted a 22-foot, saffron-coloured religious flags and led rituals – performed by 108 priests from across the country, under the guidance of a noted scholar, Ganeshwar Shastri.

Addressing the gathering later, he said a "500-year-old resolve" had been fulfilled. "Ayodhya is witnessing another epochal event in its history... The country and globe are immersed in Ram."

The right-angled triangular saffron flag bears the symbol of the Sun - representing eternal energy, divine radiance, virtue, enlightenment, and other qualities associated with Ram.