The Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil activists convicted in national security trial

Hong Kong (AFP) – A Hong Kong court sentenced three pro-democracy activists on Friday who organised annual vigils to mark China's deadly Tiananmen crackdown on charges of "incitement to subversion".


Issued on: 11/09/2026 - RFI

© Peter PARKS / AFP/File

The closely watched national security case was seen as a bellwether for freedom of expression in the Chinese city.

Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, Chow Hang-tung, 41, and Albert Ho, 74 were leaders of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance, and have been behind bars since they were charged in 2021.

Here is what you need to know about the three activists and their jail terms:

Chow Hang-tung: Seven years and three months

Chow, 41, is a Cambridge-educated lawyer who represented herself at the trial, speaking at a brisk pace and responding to questions quickly.

Part of a generation that came of age after Hong Kong's 1997 return to Chinese rule, she attended the vigils from childhood and joined the Alliance in 2010 as a volunteer.

She became a spokesperson for the Alliance after Beijing imposed a national security law on the city in 2020, following huge and sometimes violent protests the year before.

Jailed since 2021, Chow has undertaken a hunger strike every June to commemorate the 1989 anniversary.

She quoted Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Chinese Tiananmen activist Liu Xiaobo during the trial, saying the Alliance had no enemies but rather opposed one-party rule.

She told the court that seeking justice for Tiananmen victims is a moral duty, which "should not be classified as incitement to commit a crime".

"No matter how omnipotent the (Chinese) Communist Party's leadership may be, it cannot dictate our conscience," Chow said in her closing submissions.

"We know exactly what we want: to end one-party dictatorship, bring about a democratic transition and effect a change of regime."

Lee Cheuk-yan: Seven years

Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Lee Cheuk-yan was engaged in the city's labour movement and on human rights issues in China © Peter PARKS / AFP/File

Lee, 69, has been actively engaged in Hong Kong's labour movement since the 1970s, as well as on human rights issues in China.

"I have dedicated my life to fighting for freedom of association, hoping that China will have independent trade unions," he told the court in March.

Lee visited the students demonstrating in Beijing for political reform in late May 1989 in the Alliance's early days.

He was present when the government sent in troops and tanks to quash the protesters on June 4 that year, and has said he heard gunfire and saw the wounded and dead on Tiananmen Square.

Lee was detained by police when trying to leave Beijing, but was allowed to return to Hong Kong after an outcry from the financial hub's citizens.

Lee told the court the experience made him realise that advancing democracy was his "lifelong commitment".

He also told the court repeatedly that "ending one-party rule does not mean ending the Communist Party's leadership".

"Based on my love for the people, I hoped the Communist Party would reform, to let people have the rights and happiness they deserve," he said.

Albert Ho: Five years and two months

Ho worked on rights issues for decades and supported mainland lawyers facing persecution © Anthony WALLACE / AFP

Ho, 74, is a lawyer-turned-politician who led Hong Kong's now-dissolved Democratic Party and helped found the Alliance.

His legal practice worked on rights issues for decades, and he played a key role in the China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group supporting mainland lawyers facing persecution.

He served as a pro-democracy lawmaker for more than 20 years.

Ho told the Legislative Council in 2009 that "it is impossible for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) to make use of its economic achievement to cover up the crime it has committed in massacring the people", referring to the June 4 crackdown.

"Nor can it use economic benefits to make the people forget this ugly historical episode," he added.

Prosecutors cited Ho as saying in May 2018 that in a democratic China, "naturally one-party rule has to end, (which) doesn't mean eliminating the Communist Party, it has the right to join elections".

Ho is the only defendant to plead guilty to the prosecutions.

© 2026 AFP

Mao still revered in China as criticism remains risky 50 years on

Fifty years after Mao Zedong's death, his image and ideas remain deeply embedded in China, where his portrait still dominates Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing and Communist Party rhetoric continues to draw on his thinking. For older Chinese people, revolutionary songs keep memories of his era alive, while younger generations see him as a more distant historical figure. Openly criticising his legacy, however, remains difficult.


Issued on: 09/09/2026 - RFI

A woman holds a portrait of Mao Zedong during the unveiling of a bronze statue of the Chinese leader in Shaoshan, Hunan province, marking 50 years since his death on 9 September 2026. 

AFP - HECTOR RETAMAL

Mao died on 9 September 1976 after more than 25 years at the head of China.

In Beijing, many retired people still gather in parks to sing revolutionary songs praising Mao, mixing nostalgia with patriotic fervour.

“We love life, our motherland, our party, our army, our people and our magnificent landscapes. All these themes are present in the songs we sing,” Ding Yinan, who regularly joins the singing in one Beijing park, told RFI.

Known as “red songs”, the revolutionary repertoire formed part of the childhood of many Chinese retirees.

“When I have free time, I sing and it makes me happy,” Wang Liqun, who was born in the 1960s, said. “These songs give meaning to my life in retirement and help me stay positive.”

Mao's enduring appeal

For this generation, Mao retains his image as founder of the People's Republic of China, the leader credited with allowing the country to regain its sovereignty after a century of invasions and humiliations.

“He left us so many things. Chairman Mao allowed our nation to stand up, he freed the working masses and the suffering people. We stood up again,” Ding said, echoing almost word for word the account promoted by the Communist Party.

That heroic memory largely leaves aside the famines of the Great Leap Forward and the violence of the Cultural Revolution.

Revolutionary songs also carry a political message in which individual lives are inseparable from China's collective strength. That idea remains prominent in Communist Party rhetoric and among Chinese people such as Wang.

“Only China, this great family, can support each one of us,” he said. “Without China's great happiness, without the motherland's great happiness, how could there be small individual joys in China?”

Famine and political chaos

Mao's rule also brought mass purges during the Cultural Revolution, burned books, lynched teachers and 10 years of political chaos. His Great Leap Forward and the failure of his economic policies led to a famine that killed 40 million people.

“He is a complex figure. He is both the Lenin and the Stalin of the People's Republic of China,” Jean-Philippe Béja, an expert on China and retired senior researcher at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France's main public research body, told RFI.

“He is both the founder of the people's republic, but also the person who committed very, very serious... well, they're called mistakes. We could call them crimes.”

Those episodes now carry less weight than the founding myth surrounding Mao. His wavering voice proclaiming the People's Republic of China in 1949 occupies a central place in the history of both China and the Communist Party.

For younger Chinese people, Mao has become a more distant historical figure, but one still treated with respect.

“He is a great man, the founder of new China,” one young man told RFI. “Times change, but the ideas he left behind can serve as a reference for dealing with certain situations in future.”

Risks of criticism

Mao's place at the centre of Communist China's founding story makes public criticism of his record difficult.

“Anyone who dares to criticise him publicly now risks serious trouble, risks disappearing and risks being sentenced to prison,” Béja said.

Artist Gao Zhen is one example. He made caricatures in the early 2000s depicting Mao as a woman or on his knees begging for forgiveness.

Gao was recently sentenced to three years in prison.

This article was adapted from the original version in French by Clea Broadhurst

ciahttps://www.cia.gov  › readingroom  › docs  › CIA-RDP04-01460R000100040001-3.pdf

COLLECTED WORKS OF MAO TSE-TUNG 1917-1949 ...

This collection also includes leadership profiles—assessments that CIA provides US Presidents and other policymakers to assist them in understanding their...

marxistshttps://www.marxists.org  › reference  › archive  › mao  › selected-works  › sw-in-pdf  › index.htm

Selected Works of Mao Zedong (in PDF)

Volumes I through IV were scanned by Marx2Mao.org from the 1965 edition published by Foreign Languages Press, Beijing. Volume V was...

French police officers suspended over racist video as far-right links emerge

Four municipal police officers in the southern French city of Carcassonne remain suspended on Thursday as prosecutors investigate racist, sexist and homophobic remarks caught on a police body camera.


Issued on: 10/09/2026 - RFI

A police officer stands outside the municipal police headquarters in Carcassonne, southern France, on 9 September 2026. Four officers have been suspended over a video containing racist, sexist and homophobic remarks that is under investigation by prosecutors. © Ed Jones / AFP

The daily newspaper Midi Libre this week revealed a recording made by a police officer's body camera, without his knowledge, while on patrol in November 2025.

Midi Libre said the officer who made most of the remarks was a member of France's far-right National Rally (RN) who had worked with the party's security service and provided security for RN president Jordan Bardella during a visit to Carcassonne in February.

The RN said on Wednesday it had expelled him from the party and removed him from its security service.

"It is an isolated incident and a purely fabricated affair," RN vice-president Louis Aliot said on French broadcaster Franceinfo on Thursday.

"Ever since Marine Le Pen took the reins of the party, people who have no place here have been systematically shown the door. You cannot gauge what people are thinking, any more in the RN than in the Socialist party or the Communist party."
Carcassonne investigation

A judicial investigation into the recording is continuing, with witnesses still to be questioned and potential victims to be identified. The investigation began after the officer at the centre of the case filed a complaint over the recording.

The Carcassonne prosecutor's office said it was "implementing the measures (...) allowing for the suspension and subsequently the withdrawal of the accreditation of the municipal police officers concerned who do not meet the standards of integrity required for their duties".

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said on social media on Wednesday that he had ordered an inspection of the Carcassonne municipal police.

He condemned the racist, homophobic and misogynistic remarks as unworthy of the municipal police uniform and the values of the French republic.

Midi Libre said the officer provided security for Bardella when the RN president visited Carcassonne on 7 February 2026 to support the mayoral campaign of Christophe Barthès.

During a press conference on Wednesday, Carcassonne's RN mayor denounced the officers' remarks as "disgusting and inexcusable".

His administration received the conclusions of an administrative investigation into the incident on 19 May, Barthès said.

"The inquiry failed to establish with certainty the identity of the authors of each of the recorded remarks," he said.

The prosecutor's office said it had not yet received the conclusions of that investigation.

In the video, the officer responds after a female resident called police because she had hit an animal.

"No, it might be a migrant, a little Kirikou," he says, before imitating an African accent. "Kirikou in the savanna (...) he came to France, he gets hit by a vehicle."
Political reactions

The case drew condemnation from across the political spectrum. Aurore Bergé, minister delegate responsible for equality between women and men and combating discrimination, described the remarks on French broadcaster RMC as "absolutely unacceptable".

Opposition politicians also used the case to attack the National Rally over racism.

"This is what France would look like under an RN government. Unrestrained and encouraged hatred," Renaissance presidential candidate Gabriel Attal said.

The criticism also came from the left, with hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) accusing the RN of failing to distance itself from its past.

"Those who spend their time trying to detoxify the image of the National Rally should open their eyes: nothing has changed in this party, which is infested with racism and fascism," LFI national coordinator Manuel Bompard said.

(with newswires)

Bayeux Tapestry 'mania' sweeps UK as sold-out exhibition opens

London (AFP) – London's sold-out Bayeux Tapestry exhibition opens on Thursday to a British public gripped by "mania" as the medieval artwork depicting the Norman conquest of England goes on display outside France for the first time.


Issued on: 10/09/2026 - RFI

The loan of the Bayeux Tapestry from France has sparked huge interest with the British Museum selling 100,000 tickets so far. © Adrian DENNIS / AFP

The British Museum will open its doors after months of growing anticipation, heightened by the tapestry's high-security July arrival in London and last week's royal preview for the king and queen alongside French President Emmanuel Macron.

The unprecedented loan from France, the result of years of diplomacy and set to last until next July, has been hailed a symbol of renewed cross-Channel ties following the rancour of Brexit.

Previous plans to loan the tapestry - this panel shows depicts King Harold's death - were aborted in 1953 for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and in 1966 for the 900th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings © Adrian DENNIS / AFP

Long online queues formed for the first tranche of tickets released on July 1, which were snapped up within hours. The British Museum has so far sold a record 100,000 tickets, which cost £25-£33 for adults.

The Times newspaper called the exhibition a "spine-shivering experience" that has sparked "Tapestry-mania" in Britain, while The Economist dubbed it the "hottest ticket" around.

Depicting the 1066 Battle of Hastings and the invasion by William the Conqueror's Norman army, the tapestry has shadowy origins.

It is widely thought to have been made in England almost 1,000 years ago before being transferred to Bayeux in France.

A 1,000-year-old mystery: what's really stitched into the Bayeux Tapestry?

'Symbol of trust'

Many in the UK see the loan as the tapestry coming home, with Prime Minister Andy Burnham having called it a "return".

King Charles III said the temporary transfer was a "a precious symbol of trust at a time when trust seems sadly to be in short supply between nations".

A camera operator videos a section of the Bayeux Tapestry during the press preview at the British Museum in London © Adrian DENNIS / AFP

Around the country, students who learn about the artwork in history classes are gearing up for school trips, while businesses are bidding to capitalise on some of the fervour.

Dish towels, aprons and mugs featuring scenes from the tapestry are already on sale at the London museum, while luxury store Liberty has released cushions inspired by the artwork, priced at £165 each.

Even the budget bakery chain Greggs has jumped on the bandwagon, lightheartedly unveiling its own embroidered "Ta-Pastry" to tell the story of "the conquest of the British high street by our most treasured (and tasty) artifacts".

A museum in Reading, west of London, is enjoying a flurry of attention for its little-known Victorian replica of the tapestry.

And in the heart of the capital, near the British Museum, a pub has hung up an eight-metre embroidered "Beer Tapestry" recounting the history of brewing in a playful tribute to the more violent original.

"I think it's quite hard to explain to French people the excitement in the UK. I think the French don't realise what a big treasure they've got," exhibition curator Michael Lewis told AFP during a preview.

"The British are kind of completely crazy about this object because it's such a fundamentally important object for our history."

Macron opens Bayeux Tapestry exhibition before first Burnham talks

'Processional experience'

Plans to loan the tapestry to London had been considered twice before, but both were aborted: in 1953 for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and in 1966 for the 900th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings.

In what is believed to be its first time travelling outside France, the tapestry depicting 627 figures and more than 700 animals has been laid flat in a raised glass cabinet.

In its home in Bayeux, it is displayed hanging vertically.

Animations projected on the wall accompany the tapestry, zooming in on details and key events and characters in the artwork, which is replete with gore and drama.

"It's quite a processional experience because people have to go bit by bit through the tapestry," Lewis said.

Initially declared a success with "no visible alteration" to the 70-metre-long tapestry following its arrival, France last week said two broken threads were spotted during a full condition check.

However, the British Museum said the embroidery was "virtually unchanged" with thread breaks, measuring a few millimetres at most, not considered significant damage.

New Caledonia activists file complaint against French ministers over 2024 riots

Six Kanak pro-independence activists have filed a complaint against four current or former French ministers, accusing them of orchestrating their arrests and transfers from New Caledonia to prisons in mainland France for political reasons during the Pacific territory's 2024 unrest.


Issued on: 10/09/2026 - RFI

French gendarmes remove a roadblock during clashes with pro-independence protesters in Dumbea, New Caledonia, on 24 June 2024. Six Kanak activists have filed a complaint against four current or former French ministers over their arrests and transfers during the 2024 unrest. © Delphine Mayeur/AFP

The complaint includes Christian Tein, a leading figure in New Caledonia's pro-independence movement, and targets former prime minister Gabriel Attal and current Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, as well as Gérald Darmanin and Éric Dupond-Moretti.

It was filed with the petitions commission of France's Court of Justice of the Republic, or CJR, French investigative website Mediapart reported. The CJR is the only court that can try government ministers for acts carried out as part of their official duties.

The commission must now decide whether to pursue the complaint.

Case against ministers

Attal was prime minister at the time of the arrests, while Darmanin, Dupond-Moretti and Lecornu were respectively interior minister, justice minister and armed forces minister.

The four are accused of arbitrary acts infringing individual liberty, aggravated abuse of authority and criminal conspiracy to prepare these offences.

“We decided to refer the matter to the CJR so that the full truth can be established concerning the arrest of the Kanak leaders of the FLNKS in June 2024,” lawyer François Saint-Pierre, who filed the complaint with eight other lawyers, told French news agency AFP.

“If the facts we are reporting are proven – and we have evidence of them – this is a matter of state that the courts will have to investigate,” Saint-Pierre said. “And the ministers responsible will have to answer for their actions.”

In June, investigating judges in Paris ordered the dismissal of charges against Tein and Kanak activists from the CCAT (Field Action Coordination Cell), the movement behind the 2024 mobilisation against plans to loosen restrictions on New Caledonia's electoral rolls.

Prosecutors have appealed against the dismissal.
2024 crisis meeting

Lecornu, Attal, Darmanin and Dupond-Moretti all took part in an inter-ministerial crisis meeting at the Interior Ministry on 16 May 2024, four days after the riots began. The meeting was filmed by journalists accompanying Darmanin for a documentary.

“Two hundred arrests and not a single remand in custody – that is still a problem,” Darmanin said during the discussion.

“If there could be a few examples, that would be good,” Attal said.

All the CCAT leaders were arrested on 19 June 2024, and 11 activists were formally placed under investigation on 22 June.

Seven were immediately flown to mainland France on military aircraft and placed in seven different prisons.

“This operation was decided before any decision was made by the investigating judges or the liberty and custody judge of the Nouméa court (...) for reasons that were exclusively political rather than judicial: to neutralise the Kanak pro-independence leaders, particularly Christian Tein,” the complainants allege.

(with newswires)

Macron calls for European crewed spaceflights within 10 years

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday called for Europe to become one of the world’s leading space powers, with its first crewed flights within 10 years and its own satellite-based communications capabilities.


Issued on: 10/09/2026 - RFI

French president Emmanuel Macron made a keynote speech during the final day of the International Space Summit in Paris. © Ludovic Marin / AFP

“Europe must be among the very first global players [in space], particularly in communications and AI,” he said at an international space summit in Paris.

“Europe must fly with its own crews,” he said. “We want Europe to assert its ambition in crewed spaceflight.”

Macron, who finishes his second and final term as president in May 2027, referred to a space mission scheduled for 2027 that will carry three European astronauts, including Frenchman Thomas Pesquet, to the International Space Station in partnership with American company Vast and the US space agency NASA.

'Shared governance of space'

“I want to see the first European cargo capsule, Nyx, dock with the International Space Station in two years,” Macron said. “In five years, the first European lunar lander, Argonaut, land on the surface of the Moon; and in 10 years, the first crewed European capsule launch from Kourou, carrying European astronauts as well as astronauts from other nations.”

Macron also called on telecommunications operators, satellite constellation companies and industrial groups to immediately establish a European Direct to Device alliance capable of providing a direct connection between satellites and mobile phones without the need for a terrestrial antenna by 2030.

“Within 10 years, Europeans should have 5G-comparable connectivity everywhere, with no areas lacking coverage,” Macron said. “This is a matter of sovereignty and economic opportunity.”

He acknowledged the weakness of Europe’s space sector and said it needed to be strengthened.

“We need to accelerate,” Macron said. “We need to fully embrace European preference. It is neither a dirty word nor protectionism; it is a refusal to be naive.”
European industry

“To strengthen the industrial ecosystem, we must dedicate the entire European institutional market to it, without exception, and direct public procurement toward our own players,” Macron said.

Macron also called for shared governance of space, arguing that existing international rules were not adequate to meet current challenges.

“Clear-eyed thinking requires us to acknowledge that space is no longer a sanctuary,” he said. “Despite the 1967 treaty, outer space remains the only major global commons that is not subject to regulation commensurate with the challenges.”

He said a conference should be held to outline a clear roadmap for coordinating space traffic.

“France has a long-reaching and unique history when it comes to space,” Macron said. “Space policy was always built through cooperation here.”

(with newswires)

ICC WARRANT OUTSTANDING

Putin in India for BRICS summit overshadowed by war

New Delhi (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin was in India on Friday for talks ahead of an 11-member BRICS summit dominated by conflict and economic challenges, with the leaders of China and Iran set to attend.


Issued on: 11/09/2026 - RFI

Wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as global trade turbulance and oil are expected to be discussed at the summit © Vladimir SMIRNOV / POOL/AFP

Wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as global trade turbulence and oil are expected on the agenda at the two-day annual summit that opens on Saturday, when Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to arrive.

It will be Xi's first visit to India since 2019, and marks the biggest step yet in a cautious thaw between the rival neighbours, six years after a deadly military clash along their disputed Himalayan border.

Ties between the nuclear-armed Asian giants have been warming again recently, with flights, visas and high-level contacts gradually being restored.

However, deep mistrust remains, with their contested frontier, a widening trade deficit and strategic rivalry still complicating ties.

"One should engage in debate and friendship only with the virtuous, and nothing whatsoever with the unvirtuous," Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote Friday, in a message in Sanskrit to welcome arriving leaders on social media.

Modi is due to hold talks later on Friday with Putin, who last visited India in December 2025. Moscow is one of New Delhi's most important strategic partners.

India has navigated the energy crisis sparked by the Iran war in part by turning to Russia, its most controversial fuel supplier in recent years.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is also expected on Friday, and is due to hold talks with Modi.

'Fault line'

Posters of a beaming Modi line streets across New Delhi to welcome the leaders, with heavy deployments of security forces across the capital and widespread traffic restrictions.

BRICS was created in 2009 as a forum for major emerging economies seeking greater influence in institutions dominated by Western powers.

Posters of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi line streets across New Delhi to welcome the BRICS leaders © Sajjad HUSSAIN / AFP

It has since expanded and now includes Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- three countries with sharply differing positions on the war launched by the United States and Israel in February.

"The Gulf conflict is going to be the central fault line this time during the BRICS summit," said Harsh V. Pant of India's Observer Research Foundation.

"What was seen until last year as an achievement -- the expansion of BRICS -- today looks like a big constraint on BRICS," Pant said.

It will be Pezeshkian's first visit to India as Iranian president, and will put the Middle East conflict firmly on the agenda.

"The war in Iran will provide a stern test of the (expanded) group's cohesion," said Shilan Shah of Capital Economics, noting the failure of the BRICS foreign ministers to agree on a joint statement when they met in New Delhi in May.

United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan is also expected, as is Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

India maintains cordial relations with Iran and Israel, but is also careful to strike a delicate balance in its ties with Washington.

New Delhi has navigated the energy crisis caused by the Iran war in part by turning to Russia, one of its most important strategic partners and its most controversial fuel supplier in recent years as the war against Ukraine drags on.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar visited Kyiv this month, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was "grateful to India for its commitment to ending this unjust war".

burs-pjm/cms

© 2026 AFP

INTERVIEW

Eiffel Tower row exposes BAPS Hindu group as 'spearhead of Modi's soft power'

A row over the treatment of female staff at the Eiffel Tower has put a Hindu movement at the centre of a controversy in France. An India specialist told RFI that BAPS, which has close ties to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has become an important vehicle for his soft-power diplomacy abroad.


Issued on: 10/09/2026 - RFI 

The new BAPS Hindu temple in Bussy-Saint-Georges, near Paris, which opened on 6 September 2026. © Nicolas Feldmann / RFI

The controversy began after around 100 people linked to BAPS – the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha – made a private visit to the Eiffel Tower on Saturday.

Female employees were asked to leave their workstations as the delegation passed so that men could take their places, a staff representative said. Employees protested on Monday, temporarily closing the monument.

Paris mayor Emmanuel Grégoire announced an investigation, and the Eiffel Tower reopened on Tuesday.

BAPS denied making a gender-based request and apologised for any hurt or inconvenience caused.

The visit came a day before BAPS inaugurated a large new temple in Bussy-Saint-Georges, east of Paris. Modi joined the inauguration by video link.

The movement has a relatively small following within Hinduism but a large international network, particularly among the Gujarati diaspora – people from the western Indian state of Gujarat.

India specialist Christophe Jaffrelot, a research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), told RFI about BAPS's growing role in Modi's push to project Indian influence abroad.

RFI: BAPS is accused of promoting an ultra-conservative vision of society. Where does the movement come from and what does it represent today?

Christophe Jaffrelot: It is first and foremost an organisation from Gujarat, where it was founded in the early 20th century and which remains its stronghold. In India, there are very few BAPS temples outside Gujarat. There is one in New Delhi, the capital, which serves somewhat as a showcase, but that's about it.

However, Gujaratis have spread around the world and make up the largest Indian diaspora, so there are BAPS temples everywhere – from southern Africa to Canada, as well as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. That is where you find the major BAPS temples.

In terms of numbers, BAPS represents relatively few people. The vast majority of Hindus do not follow the movement. But its closeness to India's political elite makes all the difference today. Its followers may not be very numerous, but they are highly influential.

RFI: Does BAPS's conservative vision of society align with Modi's Hindu nationalism?

CJ: Modi, who comes from Gujarat, has had close relations with BAPS for 40 years. BAPS priests endorsed and legitimised him when he came to power in 2014. Modi subsequently defended and protected them.

When the 2001 earthquake destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes in Gujarat, he became the state's chief minister and relied on the movement for reconstruction. BAPS is very wealthy and rebuilt in its own way, putting its temples at the centre of villages and ensuring that Dalits, formerly known as “untouchables”, and Muslims were excluded.

It is a mutually beneficial relationship. Modi receives religious blessing and legitimacy, while these religious figures strengthen their position in Gujarati society thanks to his support.

Modi has used this movement as a representative of Hinduism for his soft-power policy. BAPS is the spearhead of that policy, which is why he personally inaugurates BAPS temples around the world. Modi travelled to Abu Dhabi to do so in 2024. For the French temple, he participated by video link, but he still took part.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, centre, after inaugurating the first BAPS Hindu temple in the Middle East, at Abu Mureikha, 40 kilometres north-east of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, on 14 February 2024. © Kamran Jebreili / AP

There is a kind of promotion of Gujarat as a nation of Hinduism, particularly among the diaspora, backed by the Indian state. We also saw the very strong involvement of the Indian embassy in Paris in the Bussy-Saint-Georges temple. It followed the construction work throughout. India's ambassador to Unesco, who is also based in Paris, was involved at every stage of the project.

So we have a community that is small in demographic terms but politically influential, and that can be seen through India's international activities.

RFI: Mixing religion and politics is nothing new in India, particularly with Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP. Can BAPS also be considered a political weapon?

CJ: It aims to be a political weapon in terms of influence. We have seen this more dramatically elsewhere, in the UK and the US. BAPS temples are places where American and British government officials are invited. King Charles III himself was invited six months ago to the largest temple in England, north of London.

It is a way of showing political elites in host countries that Hinduism has a form of soft power, that it represents a civilisation that should be recognised and cultivated. That is what BAPS is seeking above all.

Why was such a huge temple needed in Paris, where there are so few Hindus? Because it is a symbol. It shows that even there, Hinduism can plant a kind of flag. And why go to the Eiffel Tower, which has nothing to do with religion? Precisely because it is a symbol – a trophy to be won.

So it is effectively a kind of armed wing of a policy of cultural and civilisational expansion. Both the Indian government and BAPS talk constantly about Hindu civilisation.

RFI: The Eiffel Tower incident appears to have caused some embarrassment for BAPS and the Indian government. What impact could it have?

CJ: In India, it has received a lot of attention among the few remaining independent media outlets. It has attracted considerable attention within what is still a limited ecosystem. But the major Indian newspapers have also reported the incident, as have online media. It will not go any further than that in India.

The problem is more significant internationally. This affair has received considerable attention in the UK, in Germany, where temples are being built, and in Australia.

Everywhere, there is growing unease over this diaspora, which does not integrate, which increasingly seeks to assert the superiority of Hinduism as a civilisation, which rejects regulations concerning caste discrimination and which also opposes realistic descriptions of India in history or social science textbooks.

So tensions are growing. And this affair has received even greater media attention in countries with large Hindu diasporas where that unease is mounting.

RFI: In the UK, which has a large Indian community, could BAPS pose a threat to society similar to that associated with political Islam in the 2000s?

CJ: Yes. The British were shocked when riots between Hindus and Muslims broke out in the English city of Leicester in 2022 following a cricket match between India and Pakistan. At that point, it became clear that on both sides – among the Muslim minority and the Hindu minority – people were organising and arming themselves, and investigations are still underway.

This is where influence plays an essential role. The Hindu nationalist movement has acquired such influence over British political power that the investigations are making little progress. And that is one of the major issues in all these cases – how far can this movement neutralise the rule of law?

It is one of the major issues France should pay attention to, because the question arises here too. How was the construction of a temple of this kind authorised in the country of laïcité, the French principle of secularism? What kind of chain of command are we dealing with?

RFI: Given their economic and strategic ties with India, how difficult is it for countries to confront BAPS directly? How should France and other countries respond?

CJ: We need to protect ourselves against this kind of attempt to gain influence from within and apply French laws, which require the separation of religion and politics. In French society, religion belongs in the private sphere. With the construction of this temple, we therefore find ourselves in a fairly unprecedented situation, with political figures approving a religious operation conducted by a foreign state.

Perhaps an investigation should have been carried out beforehand. It is common knowledge that BAPS priests cannot associate with women. That is the rule. So the fact that this issue emerged through an incident at the Eiffel Tower and created the problem we now know about nevertheless reflects a lack of preparation.

There is another issue that explains the size of the temple near Paris – its proximity to Disneyland. The objective is fairly clear. When Indian tourists visit Europe and can afford it, they generally make a point of going to Disneyland. Well, now they will also make a detour to the Bussy-Saint-Georges temple.

RFI: Is BAPS and its vision gaining ground in India and abroad?

CJ: Yes, it is a movement that is gaining momentum because it is very close to those in power in India. One example illustrates this. In 2024, Modi inaugurated a Hindu temple in Ayodhya, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, built on the ruins of a mosque that Hindu nationalists destroyed in 1992.

The architectural model for this temple is that of the BAPS movement. The Narayan [BAPS] model is becoming, in a sense, the standard that embodies Hinduism.

BAPS is seeking to position itself as the representative of Hinduism, even though it is a very small strand of the religion. It wants to become the reference point. You can see this nationally in India.

Internationally, it is clearly expanding as Gujaratis gain social and economic influence in different countries. One example among many is that American motel chains are principally controlled by Gujaratis who, in large part, are members of BAPS.

This article is based on an interview in French by Christophe Drevet.

Internal inquiry opened after Eiffel Tower 'sexist' closure prompts strike

The Eiffel Tower reopened on Tuesday after staff walked out over the removal of women colleagues during a visit by a Hindu religious group which later apologised. The operating company has acknowledged it was wrong to accept the conditions and has opened an internal investigation.


Issued on: 08/09/2026 - RFI

Cover image: Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) Hindu monks take part in a religious ceremony in front of the Eiffel Tower before a ceremonial river parade on the river Seine in Paris on 3 September 2026.

 AFP - KENZO TRIBOUILLARD

The operating company that runs the Paris landmark, SETE, acknowledged that the Hindu delegation had requested the visit on Saturday be organised so as to limit "interactions with women" but said afterwards that "these conditions should not have been accepted".

SETE president Ariel Weil, who is also an elected official in Paris, told public broadcaster Francinfo on Tuesday that the incident, which occured on Saturday, was "totally shocking and unacceptable".

Weil maintains he was unaware of the instructions issued by the group of Hindu visitors.

"Some overly zealous operational managers apparently took it upon themselves to strictly enforce these guidelines, failing to exercise the judgment needed to recognise that they were inappropriate," he explained.

The results of an internal investigation would be known "in the coming days," he told French news agency AFP.

"We are going to shed light on what happened, and we will draw the necessary conclusions," he said.

The Eiffel Tower, which says it receives nearly seven million people a year, was closed on Monday, when SETE said it held a meeting between striking staff and management.

It reopened on Tuesday morning.

The Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) spiritual movement apologised for "any pain or inconvenience caused" by the incident.

"To the best of our knowledge, at no point was anyone prevented access to the Eiffel Tower," the organisation wrote on social media platform X.

"Due to the size of our delegation, the visit was arranged in conjunction with the Eiffel Tower team at the start of normal operating hours to avoid disrupting or inconveniencing others."

Eiffel Tower staff condemned "professional instructions that led to female employees being sidelined, replaced and made invisible because of their sex" during the visit by the delegation.

Female employees made invisible

"Instructions were given to female employees of the Eiffel Tower and to female employees of contractors to make themselves invisible in order to welcome this delegation," the staff said in a statement, adding they were shocked to have been put in such a situation.

"Some were asked to leave their posts and withdraw to other areas. In some posts they were replaced by men. And all female employees were instructed not to go through or cross certain areas while the delegation was present."

BAPS, which is close to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling conservative Hindu nationalist party, opened its first major temple in France on Sunday, near Paris.

BAPS spiritual leader Mahant Swami Maharaj, 93, consecrated it himself.

The BAPS organisation claims a worldwide network of more than 1,300 temples, some of which have been inaugurated by Modi himself.

France's gender equality minister Aurore Bergé voiced indignation after the Eiffel Tower incident.

"In France, we do not ask women to erase themselves," she said.

Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said the exclusion of female workers was "unacceptable" and contrary to the "values that the Eiffel Tower stands for".

Candidates in next year's presidential election also weighed in.

Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen also criticised the incident, saying France would "never accept that women's presence be 'limited'".

Gabriel Attal, a centrist rival to become head of state, said: "In France, no culture, no belief, no religion, nothing and no one can come and dictate to women what their place should be."

(with AFP)

How a former BAPS temple worker in the US got his freedom, but still seeks justice


The Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) Hindu sect at the heart of the Eiffel Tower strike made headlines in France during the inauguration of its latest temple near Paris. In the US, BAPS came under the spotlight when Indian stone workers were rescued from a temple construction site. One former worker recounts his journey and fight for justice.


Issued on: 10/09/2026
FRANCE24
By: Leela JACINTO

File photo of the BAPS temple in Robbinsville, New Jersey, taken November 19, 2023. © Ted Shaffrey, AP

More than eight years ago, when Rajeev Y.* first heard about a job in the US from a local contractor in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, the stone carver was thrilled.

“When we heard about the work opportunity, we thought it would be great – a good job outside India, a better life. It sounded like a dream,” said the stone worker who asked for his name to be changed for fear of retaliation and to protect his family in India.

But Rajeev’s American dream soon turned into a nightmare.

He was one of many Indian workers, mostly Dalits from the lowest rungs in India’s social hierarchy, who would go on to file a class action lawsuit in a US court against the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS). The Hindu sect made headlines in France this week when Eiffel Tower staff went on strike to protest the removal of female employees from the Paris landmark during a private visit by BAPS religious leaders and members.

Back in 2018, when Rajeev landed in the US, little was known in the West about the conservative Hindu sect whose fortunes – and opulent temples – have flourished since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power.

By 2021, American audiences would be better informed as US media detailed allegations of forced labour, abuse, trafficking and violations of immigration laws against BAPS. The Hindu sect has consistently and strenuously denied the charges.

While public awareness has now increased, Rajeev is still seeking justice. Since he arrived in the US eight years ago, the 35-year-old father of three has not been able to hold or play with his children in India. For his kids, “Dad” has turned into a virtual figure on video calls, the one who is working hard abroad, and often against the odds, to provide them with a better life.

‘Just stones, stones, stones’

Rajeev’s American nightmare began shortly after he arrived at a massive BAPS temple construction site in Robbinsville, New Jersey.

“First, they took our passports. Then they told us that if we ever try to go out of the compound, and if we get in trouble, without our passports the police will take us away and put us in prison,” he said in Hindi during a phone interview from the US.

The temple site, though, was a “central prison” for the workers, said Rajeev, using the term in English. “The life in America looked very nice. But not for us. Our work was within the temple, no going out, no talking to people. We had no freedom – only do the stonework, just stones, stones, stones.”

The state of Rajasthan is renowned for its skilled stone carvers. Its sandstone hills in varying shades of ochre ranging from salmon pink to deep red provide colour and grace to some of India’s most iconic landmarks. The capital, Jaipur, also called “the Pink City”, is a walled city on the UNESCO World Heritage List with spectacular structures such as the Hawa Mahal, or “Palace of Winds”. For centuries, Rajasthan’s stone carvers have excelled at jali, or latticework, that gives stone the appearance of the finest lace. The carving expertise and skills are passed on within families through the generations, making Rajasthan a hiring ground for temple constructors.

It’s a skillset in high demand for BAPS, a religious institution renowned for its mega temples across the world built in the traditional style. The BAPS temple in a Paris suburb, which was inaugurated over the weekend, is just one of more than 1,300 temples and more than 5,025 centres managed by the Hindu sect across India, North America, Europe, West Asia, Africa and Australia.

An interior view of the stonework inside the BAPS temple in Robbinsville, New Jersey.

 © Ted Shaffrey, AP

But there is a darker side to the production of these stones of wind and light. India has high rates of silicosis, a deadly respiratory disease caused by exposure to fine silica dust. Most of the victims are workers from impoverished, marginalised communities toiling in quarries, mines and the construction industry, according to numerous studies.

Health problems, many of them undiagnosed, chronically plague these workers. It was a health crisis on the New Jersey temple construction site that caught the attention of US authorities, according to rights groups.
A death and an FBI raid

In October 2020, a stone worker named Mohan Lal died in the temple premises. Rajeev, now a member of the Indian Stone Workers Alliance of America (ISWAA), remembers those dark days clearly.

“He was already sick, you know, but he was never admitted in a proper hospital or anywhere outside the construction site,” recounted Rajeev. “He was kept in a trailer that they used for sick people. They used to give us Indian medicines, but the medicines were not working. Mohan Lal kept saying, ‘I need treatment, put me in hospital’. But they never did that,” he said.

The workers – who spoke little or no English and were confined to a work site in an unfamiliar new country – watched with growing anxiety as Lal’s condition deteriorated.

When Lal passed away, “everyone got very scared. We were all thinking, what’s happening here? What if something like this happens to us?” said Rajeev.

BAPS’ attempts to downplay the incident fueled worker unrest, ultimately leading to a May 2021 FBI raid of the premises that rescued more than 100 workers, according to rights groups.

Shortly after the FBI raid, six workers filed a lawsuit in a New Jersey court accusing BAPS of luring them from India, confining them to the temple grounds and paying them the equivalent of about $1 an hour to perform grueling labour in near servitude.

The 42-page class action suit took particular note of the workers’ low caste status. BAPS “recruited workers from the Scheduled Caste, also known as Dalit, and other marginalized communities in India”, it reported. “At the temple in New Jersey, temple leadership did what they could to remind these marginalized workers of their place in the social hierarchy.” The workers were paid the equivalent of around $450 per month in Indian rupees. But they were only paid $50 in cash, with the rest deposited in accounts in India, the complaint said.

BAPS officials denied the charges. “I respectfully disagree with the wage claim,” Kanu Patel, the chief executive of BAPS, told The New York Times. A BAPS spokesman also disputed the accusations, saying the men did complicated work connecting stones that had been hand-carved in India. “They have to be fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. In that process, we need specialized artisans,” he told the newspaper.

Months later, lawyers for the Indian workers filed an amended lawsuit with the New Jersey federal court increasing the number of plaintiffs and expanding the scope from the Robbinsville site to other temples near Atlanta, Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles.
‘We don’t follow their god’

Following the FBI raid, the workers rescued from the New Jersey site were housed in hotels for a month before their cases were assigned to various service provider agencies and social welfare agencies across the US.

“It was 100 times better than what we were facing at the temple,” said Rajeev. “Back home in India, we had to work hard, but we had our families, we could see them. We earned money and we could spend it. Here we were stuck, with no freedom.”

The lawsuit claimed the temple workers were presented to US immigration officials as religious volunteers trained to do specialised work, qualifying them for religious, or R-1, visas.

Rajeev scoffs when asked about his “volunteering” for BAPS. Like most of the workers, he had signed forms and documents in English that he didn’t understand.

“My passport says I’m Hindu. But I follow Bodh dharm,” he said emphatically, using the Hindi words for Buddhism. “We are Dalits, we don’t follow their god,” he added, referring to BAPS members. “We never worship Swaminarayan,” he maintained, referring to the Hindu sage venerated by BAPS. “We make temples. That’s our work. The temple is for them. For us, we were given a separate tent for our worship. The temple is not for us, we were not allowed to worship inside.”

Qayam Masumi, advocacy and programme director for Dalit Solidarity Forum (DSF), a US-based NGO working on Dalit rights, questions how underpaid, subsistence workers could even afford to volunteer their services. “It was a whole scam to bypass labour laws, protections, insurance. They were actually working as daily wage labourers. And they were paid around $1.20 per hour, way below the minimum wage rate.”
A case dropped, but the fight continues

With NGOs and lawyers now on the workers’ side, Rajeev and his fellow plaintiffs felt assured that the criminal case was making its way through the legal process – until they received news of a setback.

In September 2025, months after President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) closed the workers’ criminal case.

BAPS North America welcomed the move, noting in a statement that the US government’s “decision to end this investigation sends a clear and powerful message” that their temple is “a place of peace, service, and devotion”.

Masumi says the Dalit Solidarity Forum, which was helping the workers, heard about the case closure from a BAPS lawyer, not the DOJ. “We got to know that the criminal investigation got closed without filing any charges. And there was still no statement, no public document available from DOJ explaining why there were no charges filed,” he explained.

Like many activists following the case, Sunita Viswanath, co-founder of Hindus for Human Rights, criticises the decision to drop the case. “This is the same Trump administration under which the DOJ, for instance, exonerated Eric Adams,” she said, referring to the former New York City mayor whose criminal corruption case was dropped last year, sparking the resignations of Manhattan's top federal prosecutor and six other Justice officials. “We don't believe that the dismissal of this case means that the BAPS temple is exonerated. They haven't made any kind of statement that apologises for their treatment of the workers,” Viswanath noted.

In a joint statement released with five other US-based NGOs, the Dalit Solidarity Forum expressed “deep concern over reports that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has closed its criminal investigation” and demanded “full accountability and justice for these workers and their families”.

While the criminal case was dropped, a civil wage theft case, however, “remains fully intact and is actively moving forward,” the statement added.

Since the FBI rescued more than 100 workers from the New Jersey temple site, many of them have returned to India due to family emergencies and personal issues. Following their rescue, the workers were granted T visas for victims of “severe” human trafficking. Since T visa-holders face extensive paperwork if they leave the US and want to return, many of the workers over the past five years have opted to return to lives and families in India.

But Rajeev and a few other workers remain in the US for a cause. “We want justice, that’s what we want,” he said simply.

When asked if he and his fellow stone workers had heard about the Eiffel Tower controversy surrounding BAPS, Rajeev was vague about the news, but clear about the interests of his loved ones.

“I don’t pay much attention, we did hear about the news in France. But no one from my family and my village worked on that site,” he said. “Those are other workers, they need to earn a livelihood, they have no other option,” he said. “But me, I will never work for BAPS.”

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Hinduism Is Fascism

 

From Galápagos penguins to giant daisy trees: Powerful El Niño could decimate rare wildlife

Copyright AP Photo/Alie Skowronski

By Angela Symons with AP

Published on 11/09/2026 - EURONEWS

After the powerful 1998 El Niño, only 400 of the 1,300 existing Galápagos penguins remained.

The prediction that this season’s El Niño phenomenon will be stronger than normal has alarmed the Ecuadorian scientific community, which has warned of its impact on the flora and fauna of the Galápagos Islands.

Home to the highest concentration of species not found elsewhere on Earth, the archipelago is made up of more than 230 islands, of which only four are inhabited. It is located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 1,000 kilometres off the coast of Ecuador.

The climatic phenomenon occurs periodically and in the equatorial Pacific is characterised by an increase in sea temperature and intense rainfall. Its strength is determined by measuring the water temperature in that area and comparing it to the normal average. If it is 2 degrees Celsius above normal, it is considered “very strong”.

The sea temperature will be about 2.2°C above normal, according to the latest projection from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which means that “the impact will be significant”, says Franklin Ormaza, a professor and researcher at the Faculty of Maritime Engineering and Marine Sciences of the Higher Polytechnic School of the Coast (ESPOL).

Will El Niño put Galápagos wildlife at risk?

Animals and fish will be at risk because as the water temperature rises, “plankton, algae, and smaller fish species, which are food for larger marine animals, practically disappear,” explains Washington Tapia, director of Biodiversa Ecuador, a conservation organisation in the archipelago.

He specifies that the species most at risk are the iconic Galápagos penguins, blue-footed boobies, petrels, flightless cormorants, albatrosses, and even sea lions. Coral colonies could also be seriously affected, as could tuna fishing.

In the absence of food, “animal colonies stop reproducing”, disperse in search of food, and die of starvation

Saltwater succulents grow by the water on Bartolome Island, Ecuador in the Galapagos on June 7, 2024. AP Photo/Alie Skowronski, File

If the phenomenon occurs with the expected magnitude, the archipelago’s vertebrate population could decrease by at least 20 per cent this year, Jiménez adds.

One of the most closely monitored species in the islands, the Galápagos penguins, serves as a marker of the impact of this climate phenomenon on the archipelago’s fauna.

According to data from the Charles Darwin Foundation, after the 1998 El Niño – one of the most powerful and destructive cycles – only 400 of the 1,300 existing Galápagos penguins remained.

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Effects of El Niño on Galápagos flora

If El Niño strikes with the expected force, the last three remaining Scalesia forests – dominated by 20-metre-tall giant daisy trees – could be at risk of disappearing, scientist Heinke Jager of the Charles Darwin Foundation says.

Opuntia cacti, which grow along the seashore, would also be threatened.

These plants, found only in the Galápagos Islands, support various ecosystems of insects, birds and other smaller plants that are part of the archipelago’s unique biodiversity.

Jager explains that “these species need human support” because the heavy rains brought by El Niño will cause the territory they occupy to be overrun by invasive plants, such as blackberries, which have shorter reproductive cycles.

Therefore, they have organised a plan that includes the eradication of invasive plants, the collection of seeds and the creation of nurseries to conserve threatened species. The Ecuadorian government, foundations, and nongovernmental organisations working in the archipelago are participating in the program.

The Galápagos Islands were declared a Natural World Heritage Site in 1978 for their unique animal and plant species, which served as the basis for the English scientist Charles Darwin to develop his theory of evolution.