Geopolitics
The Eiffel Tower Fiasco: When Political Patronage Trumps Progress and Embarrasses a Nation
A delegation of the BAPS Hindu sect requested female staff at the Eiffel Tower be removed from the premises, citing celibacy rules, sparking a strike, international outrage, and a political firestorm in France. This incident, involving a sect closely linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is a grotesque distortion of Hindu spiritual values, weaponized as a tool for cultural diplomacy, which has now spectacularly backfired by projecting a regressive and misogynistic image of India on the global stage, betraying the progressive spirit of the Global South and pandering to the very Western stereotypes we fight against.
