Swaminarayan monks’ visit to Eiffel Tower triggers unwarranted controversy

The iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris was shut down on Monday, 7 September, by a strike by employees who objected to the decision of making women employees invisible during the visit of the monks from BAPS (Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha). Presidential hopeful Marine La Pen led the outrage and declared that it was not acceptable in France. The mayor of Paris Emmanuel Grégoire also took to social media and asserted, “Equality between women and men will never stop at the foot of our historical monuments, nor anywhere in this city. It must be applied everywhere, for everyone.”

Diane Davoine, a union representative, told French TV that female workers had been "moved away from their workstations as the delegation passed by" during the visit. Eiffel Tower employees have condemned in a statement what they described as "professional instructions that led to female employees being sidelined, replaced and made invisible because of their sex". SETE, the company that runs the tower, has acknowledged that the Hindu delegation requested the trip be organised so as to limit "interactions with women," adding that "these conditions should not have been accepted".

The Swaminarayan Trust is a wealthy sect from Gujarat and deemed to be close to the BJP and prime minister Narendra Modi. It was Modi who on Sunday inaugurated the new Swaminarayan Temple in Bussy-Saint-Georges, 30 kilometres away from Paris. The temple is described as the first traditional ‘Hindou’ temple in continental Europe after one in the UK. No stranger to controversies, years before the Eiffel Tower incident, BAPS faced allegations of worker abuse, visa fraud and medical neglect during the construction of their temple in New Jersey in the US.

The management of Eiffel Tower claimed that the sect requested that during the visit of some of their monks the ‘interaction with women’ be limited. The request was accepted and the management ordered the women in the staff to ‘hide’ during the visit, outraging both the employees and the French. The controversy has dealt a huge blow to goodwill for India, Hindus and PM Modi and is seen as a PR disaster.

The controversy has embarrassed Indians and Hindus, who rightly pointed out that in India women are not barred from any temple. Outraged Hindus in India asked if the monks demanding exclusion of women did not have mothers. Did they not see their mother or were they born with a blindfold, some exclaimed. “Who is going to teach them that Sita always comes before Ram; Radha always before Krishna; and Laxmi always before Narayan. That is how good Hindus follow the religion. Swamiji must apologise to all Hindus, and the French,” tweeted Pankaj Pachauri, former media advisor to late PM Dr Manmohan Singh.

BAPS, France issued a statement denying that they ever requested for women to be replaced or hidden from sight. Its devotees pointed out that BAPS is currently hosting a festival of India to commemorate the consecration of the temple. The festival, which will continue till 14 September, included a ‘palkhi yatra’ led by women of all ages, the devotees pointed out.  The festival schedule also includes a women’s convention as well as a Mahila Bhakti Yatra, claimed BAPS spokesmen.

"To our knowledge, at no time was access to the Eiffel Tower denied to anyone. Nevertheless, we wish to offer our sincere apologies to anyone who may have been hurt or inconvenienced,” read the statement.

BAPS, which has some of the wealthiest Gujaratis as its devotees and as donors, is no stranger to controversy though. In 2021, the FBI raided their massive New Jersey temple after workers - mostly Dalits from India alleged they were lured to the US on false promises of employment but had their passports confiscated and forced to work 13-hour days for about $1 an hour and were confined to a guarded compound.

BAPS alibi is that some of their monks lead life as ascetics and take vows to not even look at women as part of monastic discipline.