Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the controversial Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on Monday, fulfilling a long-standing electoral promise of his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
Mr Modi presided over a consecration ceremony performed by Hindu priests that lasted for about three hours and was broadcast live on state-run and dozens of private televisions.
A statue of Lord Rama as a child, weighing 200kg and about 2.5 metres high, was installed last week in the main sanctum of the multimillion-dollar temple, which is still under construction.
Mr Modi, who had been fasting for the past 11 days, arrived at the temple in a helicopter.
Wearing traditional attire and carrying offerings, he walked barefoot to the main sanctum. He then sat beside the priests who performed the rituals and unveiled the idol.
“Lord Rama has arrived after centuries of wait. Our Lord Rama will not live in a tent. He will live in this grand temple,” Mr Modi said in a public address after the inauguration.
“This is a legacy of our centuries of patience. This is not a normal moment. This is a moment of etching indelible lines on the circle of time.”
He urged people of all religions to celebrate the day as Diwali, the annual festival of lights dedicated to Lord Rama.
Mr Modi sat besdie Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – the ideological parent of Mr Modi’s ruling BJP.
The RSS has pushed for the construction of a temple at the site for decades, based on the belief that it is the birthplace of Rama, despite a 16th-century mosque already existing in the same place.
More than 7,000 people, including high-ranking officials, film stars such as Amitabh Bachchan and Rajnikant, sports stars, business tycoons and 100 dignitaries from 55 countries attended the consecration ceremony. There was heavy security in and around the temple.
Tens of thousands of devotees had descended to the temple.
Many were seen standing on rooftops of buildings close to the temple and waving saffron flags, a colour associated with Hinduism and India’s Hindu nationalistic parties.
Others danced to drum beats, blew into conch shells – a sound associated with prayer ceremonies – and let off firecrackers.
Indian Air Force helicopters were seen showering petals over the temple since early morning, while the northern town has been decked with saffron flags and marigolds of the same colour.
The federal government declared a half-day holiday for its employees, including at India’s premier health centre in New Delhi, while several states announced a holiday for banks and educational institutions.
Despite India being an officially secular country, the majority of Indians are religious, with about 80 per cent considering themselves Hindu.
The construction of the temple under Mr Modi is expected to boost his Hindu nationalist party’s image and further cement its stronghold as it is focuses on clinching a third term in national elections set to take place by May.
But the inauguration of the temple has also been marked by controversy over its consecration before the structure is fully built, with some religious leaders refusing to attend the ceremony. Construction is expected to be completed in December this year.
Opposition political parties have also questioned the rush to open the temple and have accused Mr Modi of using the inauguration to win the votes of India's Hindu majority.
Ram Mandir is built on the site of a 16th-century mosque, the Babri Masjid, that was demolished by supporters of the BJP and other Hindu right-wing groups in 1992.
Hindus have long claimed that the mosque, built by Babur, the founder of the Mughal dynasty in India, occupied the site of a temple dedicated to the birthplace of Rama.
In 1949, two years after India’s independence from the British, a group of Hindu activists secretly put an idol of Lord Ram inside the mosque, and then reported that it had miraculously appeared.
The news spread and large numbers of Hindus started to visit the site. In response, the government declared the area, comprising more than a hectare of land, including the mosque, as “disputed” and sealed it.
Lawsuits were filed by Hindu groups who demanded the gates to open and vowed to build a temple at the site, which started the beginning of the Ram Temple movement.
In 1989, the Vishva Hindu Parishad, a Hindu group associated with the RSS laid the foundation stone for a temple at the disputed site.
Two years later, Lal Krishna Advani, a veteran BJP leader, began a 10,000km motorcade rally from Gujarat to Ayodhya to consolidate Hindu support ahead of general elections.
Mr Advani often invoked Hindu nationalism in his speeches at the rallies.
On December 6, 1992, the VHP, BJP and other right-wing Hindu groups organised a rally outside the mosque.
More than 150,000 Hindus joined the rally, while police barricaded the structure. By noon, a group of rally participants stormed the barricades and scaled the mosque.
They demolished it with shovels, pickaxes and sticks, destroying it within five hours.
The demolition sparked religious violence across the country, during which about 2,000 people were killed, mostly Muslims.
The Rama idol was kept in a makeshift tent at the site after the demolition and the BJP had always promised to make a temple in its election manifesto.
Critics have said Mr Modi's close association to the religious event goes against India's secular identity as laid down in its constitution and called the grandiose ceremony a “vulgarisation” of the religion in a secular nation.
About 80 per cent of India's 1.4 billion people follow Hinduism. Islam is the biggest minority religion, with more than 200 million followers. The country is also home to Christians, Sikhs, Zoroastrians and a Jewish community.
However, since coming to power in 2014, Mr Modi’s government has often been accused by opponents of espousing the cause of Hindutva – Hindu supremacy.
Many fear that if Mr Modi or his BJP returns to power, it will move its focus on the new simmering disputes to continue with its polarisation.
The Prime Minister, however, brushed aside those apprehensions, instead he said that the temple is a symbol of harmony and peace in the country.
“Some people are saying the temple will trigger fire in the country. But Ram Lalla temple is a symbol of peace, patience, harmony and solidarity,” said Mr Modi.
“This temple will not give birth to any fire but energy. It will give inspiration to every person in the society to walk towards the path of a bright future.”
RESULTS
Bantamweight:
Zia Mashwani (PAK) bt Chris Corton (PHI)
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Flavio Serafin (BRA) bt Mohammad Al Khatib (JOR)
Super lightweight:
Dwight Brooks (USA) bt Alex Nacfur (BRA)
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Tariq Ismail (CAN) bt Jalal Al Daaja (JOR)
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Abdullatip Magomedov (RUS) bt Sulaiman Al Modhyan (KUW)
Middleweight:
Mohammad Fakhreddine (LEB) bt Christofer Silva (BRA)
Middleweight:
Rustam Chsiev (RUS) bt Tarek Suleiman (SYR)
Welterweight:
Khamzat Chimaev (SWE) bt Mzwandile Hlongwa (RSA)
Lightweight:
Alex Martinez (CAN) bt Anas Siraj Mounir (MAR)
Welterweight:
Jarrah Al Selawi (JOR) bt Abdoul Abdouraguimov (FRA)
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Your rights as an employee
The government has taken an increasingly tough line against companies that fail to pay employees on time. Three years ago, the Cabinet passed a decree allowing the government to halt the granting of work permits to companies with wage backlogs.
The new measures passed by the Cabinet in 2016 were an update to the Wage Protection System, which is in place to track whether a company pays its employees on time or not.
If wages are 10 days late, the new measures kick in and the company is alerted it is in breach of labour rules. If wages remain unpaid for a total of 16 days, the authorities can cancel work permits, effectively shutting off operations. Fines of up to Dh5,000 per unpaid employee follow after 60 days.
Despite those measures, late payments remain an issue, particularly in the construction sector. Smaller contractors, such as electrical, plumbing and fit-out businesses, often blame the bigger companies that hire them for wages being late.
The authorities have urged employees to report their companies at the labour ministry or Tawafuq service centres — there are 15 in Abu Dhabi.
TOUCH RULES
Touch is derived from rugby league. Teams consist of up to 14 players with a maximum of six on the field at any time.
Teams can make as many substitutions as they want during the 40 minute matches.
Similar to rugby league, the attacking team has six attempts - or touches - before possession changes over.
A touch is any contact between the player with the ball and a defender, and must be with minimum force.
After a touch the player performs a “roll-ball” - similar to the play-the-ball in league - stepping over or rolling the ball between the feet.
At the roll-ball, the defenders have to retreat a minimum of five metres.
A touchdown is scored when an attacking player places the ball on or over the score-line.
MATCH INFO
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Gulf Under 19s final
Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B
