New Delhi: Top international media houses have responded to the historic Ayodhya verdict by the Supreme Court and also claims it to be a major win for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The SC delivered a unanimous judgement on the case where the court backed the construction of a Ram Temple by a trust at the disputed site in Ayodhya. The top court also ordered an alternative five-acre plot to be found for a mosque in the town.
The New York Times wrote “Court Backs Hindus on Ayodhya, Handing Modi Victory in His Bid to Remake India”. The article, authored by Maria Abi-Habib and Sameer Yasir, describe the Ayodhya verdict as “India’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hindus on Saturday in a decades-old dispute over a holy site contested by Muslims, handing the prime minister and his followers a major victory in their quest to remake the country as Hindu and shift it further from its secular foundation.”
The Washington Post reported “India’s Supreme Court clears way for a Hindu temple at country’s most disputed religious site”. It further read, “The verdict awarded the land at the heart of the clash to a Hindu litigant over Muslim objections and represents a major victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The building of a temple to the Hindu god Ram in the town of Ayodhya is a long-cherished goal of Hindu nationalists and a key objective of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.”
The Guardian, in its report authored by Hannah Ellis-Petersen, also called the Supreme Court verdict on Ayodhya case a “huge victory” for PM Narendra Modi. “The ruling, just six months after his landslide election win, is another huge victory for India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, and his Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government, which have made the restoration of the Ram temple at Ayodhya a focal point of their Hindu nationalist agenda,” The Guardian reported.
CNN, in its report, wrote “Hindus allowed to build on disputed holy site, India’s Supreme Court rules”. The joint report by Helen Regan, Swati Gupta and Manveena Suri explained the judgment and gave a brief history to the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case. CNN said the Ayodhya verdict on Saturday ended “one of the country’s most politically charged land disputes”.