The government on Tuesday (September 8, 2026) faced questions over its links to a religious group whose allegedly “anti-women” demands caused the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris to shut down for a day, leading to a major political row in France. Paris city officials have begun a formal inquiry into the incident, and the Hindu group, known as BAPS, denied making any demands to “limit interactions” with women employees at the tower.
The shutdown came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a temple built by BAPS in a Paris suburb. “We are aware of the opening of a temple by the BAPS Sanstha in the Paris area. In a 10-minute virtual address, Mr. BAPS leaders, who were in Paris for the temple’s inauguration and planned a weekend visit to the landmark, specifically asked for women employees to be moved out of sight of the delegation of monks, particularly their 93-year-old leader, according to officials managing the Eiffel Tower.
Modi had called the construction a “new chapter” in India-France cultural relations. The External Affairs Ministry said the Prime Minister often addressed such events and India was not involved in the controversy at the Eiffel Tower. The union of the Eiffel Tower employees, which called the one-day strike in solidarity with female colleagues, said the women, who had been replaced by men at certain posts, were instructed not to cross certain areas while the delegation was present. As to the issue pertaining to the Tower, this is a matter purely between the entities (BAPS and the Eiffel Tower authorities concerned,” Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in his first response to the controversy.
To a follow-up question from The Hindu on whether the government has asked BAPS for an explanation of its alleged demand to deny women employees access to parts of the Eiffel Tower or whether it would now distance itself from the group, Mr.
Jaiswal said that it was a “common practice” for the Prime Minister to “convey his good wishes” on such occasions, and there would be no comment.
French right-wing and centrist opposition leaders criticised the Macron government for the incident and demanded an explanation. “In France, we do not ask women to erase themselves. Several French commentators questioned the reasons behind the group’s influence, pointing to the BAPS temple in the U.S. that faced legal cases after the Federal Bureau of investigation accused the group of labour code violations.
India’s Ambassador to UNESCO, Vishal Verma, praised the BAPS group in a social media post on Tuesday and said his wife had participated in the “shilanyas” or stone-laying ceremony of the temple in 2022. However, the statement was countered by both the women employees, who said they were made to feel “invisible”, and by Paris and Eiffel Tower officials. No dogma, no religion is above the laws of the Republic,” France’s Equality Minister Aurore Berge said in response.
Earlier this year, India’s Ambassador to France, Sanjeev Singla, had spoken at a ceremony for the temple.
