Election News
Modi Hails A New ‘Divine India’ As He Inaugurates Controversial Hindu Temple Ahead Of Nationwide Elections
Millions of people throughout India watched the opening of a massive Hindu temple on Monday, an event seen as the pinnacle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist objectives months before he seeks a rare third term in office.
The Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir, a temple dedicated to Lord Ram, will be inaugurated in northern India’s Ayodhya after more than 30 years of preparation and is expected to give Modi’s election campaign a significant boost.
The Ram Mandir is realizing Modi’s aim of creating a “new India,” which many believe will transform the country into a distinctly Hindu nation.
For Modi’s adversaries, the temple’s inauguration marks the completion of a decades-long drive to distance India from the secular roots on which the country was built after independence.
“Today, our Lord Ram has arrived. After generations of waiting, our Ram has finally arrived. “After centuries of unprecedented patience, countless sacrifices, renunciations, and penances, our Lord Ram has arrived,” Modi declared from the newly-constructed temple, which was adorned with colourful flowers, before an audience of 7,000 people, including movie stars, top cricket players, and tycoons.
“Ram is not a dispute, Ram is the solution,” he said.
Monday’s ceremony fulfils a long-standing promise Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government made to voters, which helped drive them to power in 2014.
In a deadly 1992 attack that sparked the nation’s Hindu nationalist movement, violent Hindu hardliners destroyed a 16th-century mosque on the site of a temple that Modi and his political supporters had long promised to erect.
Modi Hails A New ‘Divine India’ As He Inaugurates Controversial Hindu Temple Ahead Of Nationwide Elections
The BJP and other right-wing parties pushed for the mosque’s demolition, which propelled the party into mainstream politics and helped it win a general election four years later.
In his speech, Modi made no direct mention of the Babri Masjid or the country’s Muslims, many of whom are deeply saddened by the events in Ayodhya. He did mention moving forward and “the beginning of a new time cycle.”
“From today, from this hallowed time, we must create the groundwork for the next 1,000 years. By moving forward with the temple construction, we are all taking a pledge to establish a national, capable, successful, beautiful, and divine India,” Modi stated.
On Monday, Modi presided over the Pran Pratishtha, or consecration ceremony, of an idol of Lord Ram, one of Hinduism’s most revered deities, within the temple’s sanctum sanctorum. The black stone statue depicted a young boy and was embellished with gold jewellery, gemstones, diamonds, and flowers.
Outside, military helicopters hovered over the temple and city, showering flower petals on the massive structure and hundreds of dignitaries below.
Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s right-wing parent organization, spoke at the occasion, stating that the temple “has become a symbol of a new India that will stand tall.”
“It has been said, and we know, that today in Ayodhya, along with Lord Ram, India’s self has returned,” he said.
Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, where Ayodhya is located, and one of the country’s most polarising political figures, described the Ram Mandir as India’s “national temple” and an “important ritual of cultural reawakening.”
Saffron flags soared high all day, and marigold flowers adorned building doors as tens of thousands of believers marched through the ancient town’s streets in joyous processions.
“For 500 years, Lord Ram was living in a hut,” devotee Acharya Mohanjodaro Bharadwaj told CNN, alluding to the time the Mughal-era mosque was constructed. “Today Modi made him sit inside a temple, the whole country is celebrating it like it’s Diwali.”
Celebrations were held nationwide, with officials pushing people to celebrate in their homes and temples, ensuring it became a national event.
Uttar Pradesh proclaimed Monday a public holiday, with schools and liquor businesses closed throughout the state.
Modi Hails A New ‘Divine India’ As He Inaugurates Controversial Hindu Temple Ahead Of Nationwide Elections
Hundreds of Indian diaspora members gathered in New York on Sunday to celebrate the inauguration in front of a giant image of Lord Ram shown on a Times Square screen. Indian embassies around the world had watch parties.
While millions of Hindus hailed the unveiling of the long-awaited complex, which they regard as Ram’s birthplace, the country’s minority Muslim community saw it as a bitter reminder of religious tensions that they worry will worsen under Modi’s BJP rule.
The temple site was originally home to the Babri Masjid, a 16th-century mosque built during the Mughal Empire’s reign over India from 1526 to 1858.
However, the site has been debated for decades.
Many Hindus think the mosque was erected over the remnants of a Hindu temple that Babar, the first Mughal emperor in South Asia, purportedly demolished.
In 1992, right-wing organizations like the BJP and other groups supported Hindu hardliners who attacked the mosque, sparking widespread communal rioting that claimed over 2,000 lives nationwide.
The violence was among the most severe seen in India since the deadly battles that accompanied partition after independence in 1947.
In the years that followed, Hindu nationalists banded together to build the Ram Mandir on the site of the destroyed mosque, setting the groundwork for a decades-long emotional and political standoff.
In 2019, India’s Supreme Court permitted Hindus to build the temple on the contested site, effectively resolving the matter. It was viewed as a success by Modi and his supporters, but it was a setback for many Muslims, who saw the destruction of the Babri Masjid as a source of significant stress and historic loss.
Ayodhya is home to almost 3 million people, including approximately 500,000 Muslims, and some of them are concerned about attacks on the day of the temple’s opening.
Many people have expressed their support for one another on social media, with WhatsApp messages asking the community to avoid taking public transport for safety reasons.
Maulana Badshah Khan, 65, recently told CNN that he will remain home on Monday.
“The wounds left by the destruction of the Babri Mosque will never heal. Even if we are discouraged about expressing them,” Khan stated. “The temple holds the symbolic value of showing the Muslims their place in New India.”
‘Blurred lines’ between religion and government
Others have accused Modi of “weaponizing” the Hindu faith and exploiting the Ram Temple for political purposes.
“Objections include the fact that Modi is not a religious leader and thus unqualified to lead the ceremony, and that a Hindu temple cannot be consecrated until it is completed,” said a statement from Hindus for Human Rights, a US-based non-profit advocacy group.
Mr Modi “rushing through and fronting it himself is the latest attempt to weaponize Hinduism in the name of the BJP’s repressive nationalist ideology, ahead of national elections in May,” he said in the statement.
Modi came to office in 2014 with a promise to restructure the country’s economy and usher in a new era of growth, but he also actively promoted a Hindutva agenda, which holds that India should become a land for Hindus.
His promise to build the Ram Mandir contributed to the initial election win.
Modi Hails A New ‘Divine India’ As He Inaugurates Controversial Hindu Temple Ahead Of Nationwide Elections
Monday’s temple opening is expected to bolster Modi’s chances of winning a rare third term in a general election later this year, as he fulfilled his pledge to millions of voters.
In the lead-up to his inauguration, Modi fasted and prayed in an 11-day ceremony steeped in Hindu religious symbolism. As part of the festivities, Modi visited Lord Ram shrines and temples all around the country.”The Lord has made me an instrument to represent all the people of India during the consecration,” he stated in a taped message posted on his YouTube page.
On Sunday, Modi shared a video on social networking site X depicting himself walking into the sea and drowning at the Arulmigu Ramanathaswamy Temple in southern Tamil Nadu.
Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of “The Demolition and the Verdict,” a book about the 1992 mosque demolition, believes Modi’s decision to preside over Monday’s festivities demonstrates “Hindu hegemony” in India.
“Lines between politics and religions have gotten blurred,” he remarked of Modi’s participation in the ceremony in an officially secular country.
“They’ve also blurred the line between religion and the Indian state. You currently have an Indian prime minister who is partaking in a completely religious activity with the full support of the official machinery.
SOURCE – (CNN)
Kamala Harris appears to be more appealing to voters of colour and younger voters than Joe Biden was before dropping out of the presidential run. Harris has the potential to acquire greater support from these groups in her upcoming election against Donald Trump, as seen by 2020 outcomes.
Check out our freshly published CNN/SSRS poll. Harris has a 78% to 15% edge over Trump among black voters. In CNN polling data from April and June, Biden led by a narrower 70% to 23% among these same voters (the poll interviewed the same respondents again).
This is also true for Hispanic voters, albeit to a lesser extent. Harris has 47% to Trump’s 45%, compared to 50% for Trump and 41% for Biden among the same respondents in April and June.
Voters under the age of 35 show a similar shift. Kamala Harris currently has 47% to Trump’s 43%. In April and June, these same voters supported Trump 49% to 42% over Biden.
In some ways, none of these changes are very shocking. Biden had performed the lowest for a Democrat this century among all of these normally Democratic-leaning populations. In fact, his showing among Hispanic and Black voters was the lowest by a Democrat in more than 50 years.
Kamala Harris probably had no choice but to align with these voting blocs.
Despite the improvement, Harris’ results should leave a lot to be desired. In the final 2020 surveys, she scored at least 5 points lower than Biden among the same groups.
By the end of the 2020 campaign, Biden had an 84% to 9% lead over Trump among Black voters. Even more noteworthy is Biden’s 58%-32% lead among Hispanic voters.
Finally, even though Harris has become a meme favourite with young voters, Biden’s 60% to 31% lead over Trump by the end of the 2020 campaign is significantly larger than Harris’ current position.
(It’s worth noting that polling at this time in the 2020 campaign was similar to polling in the end.)
This may appear to be bad news for the Harris campaign, and it certainly is. Harris is unlikely to defeat the former president unless his performance in these areas improves.
The good news for Kamala Harris is that she’s gaining progress with this group in comparison to Biden’s performance earlier this year.
As Harris continues to establish herself outside of her role as Biden’s vice president, there is a good chance she will build out her own political identity, which may appeal to voters of colour and young people.
The fact that Harris outperforms Biden among voters of colour gives her the ability to open up more avenues in the Electoral College.
Biden’s route to 270 electoral votes seems restricted. He would need to dominate the northern battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District. His polling numbers in the Sun Belt states of Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina were low.
If Biden had won the northern battleground states and the other Democratic-leaning states (excluding the aforementioned Sun Belt states), he would have received the 270 electoral votes required to win.
Biden underperformed in Sun Belt states because of their high proportion of Black and Hispanic voters. Kamala Harris may be able to reopen the door to new electoral paths if he performs better with those demographics.
If Kamala Harris wins all four Sun Belt battlegrounds indicated above, she will not need to carry Michigan, Pennsylvania, or Wisconsin.
Perhaps more plausible, Kamala Harris may reach 270 electoral votes by winning a combination of northern battlegrounds and Sun Belt swing states.
The bottom line is that the latest CNN poll gives the Kamala Harris campaign some hope. It’s not that Trump isn’t popular, or that Harris won’t have a difficult campaign.
Rather, Kamala Harris now has a number of avenues to success, whereas Biden’s options appeared to be narrowing rapidly.
Source: CNN
Election News
As Harris Moves To Secure The Democratic Nomination, Misinformation Follows Soon After Online
Within minutes of President Joe Biden endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him on the Democratic Party’s ticket on Sunday, the internet erupted with lies, distorted photographs, and other false allegations about Harris.
Some fans of former President Donald Trump, the Republican contender for the November election, even claimed Biden was the victim of a coup.
Meanwhile, a flurry of slickly crafted pro-Harris videos soon spread on social media as her supporters attempted to capitalize on the situation.
The venom and counter-punches are a likely preview of the remaining three months of the presidential race when a fierce battle to mold and destroy Harris’ image will take place at a time when social media companies have reduced disinformation controls.
“As Kamala Harris becomes more likely to be the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee and gains more public attention, the amount of disinformation and misleading rhetoric will increase exponentially,” Erik Nisbet, a professor at Northwestern University’s School of Communication, told CNN.
Harris | CNN
As Harris Moves To Secure The Democratic Nomination, Misinformation Follows Soon After Online
On X, owner Elon Musk fueled an antisemitic conspiracy theory by responding to a photo of Harris with Alexander Soros, son of billionaire megadonor George Soros, by implying that Harris was a “puppet” of the family. Musk embraced Trump this month, sharing pro-Trump content with almost 190 million followers.
Photoshopped photographs of Harris have also surfaced. One photo of Harris smiling with her husband was altered to make it appear like the vice president was posing with Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased financier and accused sex trafficker.
In the hours following Biden’s revelation, the hashtag “She’s Indian” trended on X, with some users spreading a false rumor about Harris being “not Black” (Harris’ mother was born in India and her father in Jamaica).
PeakMetrics, a social media analytics firm, examined approximately 175,000 posts on X between 6 and 7 p.m. ET on Sunday that addressed Harris about Biden’s statement and discovered that 8.3% of the postings used “racialized” language, while 4.5% used “sexualized” language.
Biden’s likeness was also utilized following his announcement, which was made via a social media post rather than a broadcast address. A bogus, expletive-laden video purporting to show Biden announcing his decision to withdraw from the race began circulating on X.
PBS News, whose logo appeared in the video, issued a statement labeling it a ” deep fake,” adding, “PBS News did not authorize the use of this video, and we do not condone altering news video or audio in any way that could mislead the audience.”
Pro-Harris videos flooded TikTok, with many citing a coconut joke that has become synonymous with support for her candidacy. (In 2023, Harris delivered a speech on expanding chances for Hispanic Americans that featured a statement attributed to her mother on understanding the context of young people’s lives: “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?”) One TikTok video, a compilation of Harris memes, had almost 712,000 likes and 73,000 shares.
Harris’ crew has also embraced a popular post by British pop singer Charli XCX, who referred to Harris as a “brat,” a phrase encompassing women’s and LGBTQ+ empowerment.
As Harris Moves To Secure The Democratic Nomination, Misinformation Follows Soon After Online
Russian official media also quickly responded to Biden’s decision to withdraw. Sputnik, one of several pro-Kremlin mouthpieces, wrongly claimed in a tweet that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had been a “curse” to Biden.
“I don’t think Kremlin-aligned accounts will drive conversations related to this news,” said Joseph Bodnar, a researcher who studies pro-Kremlin media for CNN. “But they’re certainly happy to boost divisive domestic narratives.”
“Imagine being a foreign disinfo/information operations actor trying to compete with the actual news this election cycle,” joked Shane Huntley, a cyber threat intelligence expert at Google, on X.
SOURCE | CNN
In a television interview on Friday, US President Joe Biden deflected queries on his mental health in an attempt to put a stop to demands that he withdraw his reelection campaign after his dismal debate performance with former President Donald J. Trump.
Sensations of discontent among certain Democratic voters, lawmakers, and fundraisers were growing, and the one-on-one meeting with the ABC network was billed as the most important of the 81-year-old president’s lengthy career.
However, the 22-minute sit-down with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos seemed to offer little comfort as Biden continued to downplay polls and party concerns that the debate had seriously harmed his chances while blaming illness for his poor performance.
“I was feeling sick and miserable. The president stated, “I just had a really bad cold,” in his first lengthy, unscripted statement since his confrontation with Republican challenger Donald Trump last week.
The purpose of the interview was to help Biden weather the storm, but his rough voice and rambling responses immediately prompted criticism from Democrats for coming across as “out of touch.”
“I don’t think anybody’s more qualified to be president or win this race than me,” Biden responded when asked if continuing in the race would endanger Democrats’ chances of winning the presidency.
Biden was Defiant
He declined requests for a mental health evaluation, claiming that his daily tasks as president need him to take a cognitive test. I have to pass that test every day for all I do.
As the program aired, the Trump campaign jokingly stated on social media that “Biden sounds great” before declaring that the president “is in denial and in decline.”
The interview followed Biden’s sluggish and frequently nonsensical performance in the Atlanta debate against Trump, which sent shockwaves through his party and prompted demands for him to withdraw from the contest.
The Biden team has strongly refuted any notion that he could pull out and, in the final hours before the ABC interview, unveiled a rigorous campaign itinerary for the remainder of July.
The president made a strong declaration during an animated stump speech at a Madison, Wisconsin, campaign rally: “I’m staying in the race.” Donald Trump will lose to me.
Following the debate, surveys have showed a growing margin in favor of Trump, and a number of Democratic-leaning political pundits, major newspapers, and at least four members of Congress have called for Biden to resign.
Democrats turning on Biden
US media reported that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner were arranging crisis discussions with members in the coming days.
Throughout Friday’s interview, ABC interviewer George Stephanopoulos brought up the rising Democratic demand for a discussion on selecting a new candidate and questioned Biden about his willingness to resign if he became certain he couldn’t defeat Trump.
“Well, that depends. He responded, “I might do that if the Lord Almighty comes down and tells me that.”
After the fact, Biden clarified that he had not seen the debate, saying, “I don’t think I did, no.”
He also rejected the notion that his subpar performance was an indication of a more significant medical issue.
“It was a bad episode with no signs of a major illness.” I was worn out. In terms of getting ready, I disregarded my gut feelings, and I had a terrible night,” Biden remarked.
Top White House assistant to Barack Obama, David Axelrod, who has occasionally caused trouble for the Biden administration, claimed that the interview revealed a president who is “dangerously out of touch” and expressed doubts about his suitability for office.
He led Trump by ten points at this moment four years ago (in polls). He is now six points behind, according to Axelrod’s post on X.
According to the White House, Biden will travel to Pennsylvania this weekend and then deliver a press conference during the NATO summit in Washington the following week.
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