(20 May 2024)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mumbai, India – 20 May 2024
1. Actress, Divya Dutta, shows her inked finger after casting her vote and walks away
2. Various of people waiting in queues to cast their votes at polling booth
3. Woman casts her vote and walks out from the polling area while others check their names in polling list
4. Elderly woman in wheelchair shows her inked finger after casting her vote
Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India – 20 May 2024
5. Pan of controversial Ram Temple complex
6. A group of spiritual people and priests show their inked fingers after casting their votes, with Ram temple complex in the background
7. Various of voters standing in queue waiting to cast their votes at polling booth
8. Wide of police security personnel standing guard at entrance of a polling station
9. Two elderly men standing outside polling station and talking after casting their votes, police in the background
10. SOUNDBITE (Hindi) ) Sudha Pandey, Teacher:
“Democracy should mean what it literally means, that is taking everyone into consideration and benefitting everyone. There should be no classification in people and discrimination. Everyone should be treated equal. Decision making should take contributions from everyone. That is what our democracy should be and that is what our constitution says.”
11. Sign outside temple
12. Wide of people walking near temple entrance
13. Young man puts a coloured powder on a woman’s forehead that reads ‘Victory to Lord Ram’ or ‘Jai Shree Ram’ in Hindi
14. Wide of entrance of Shri Hanuman Garhi temple
15. Exterior of temple
16. People walking towards temple
17. Various of people in queues waiting to cast their vote at polling station
STORYLINE:
Millions of Indians across 49 constituencies are casting ballots as the country’s six-week-long election enters its final stages.
Voting is also happening in northern Ayodhya city, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened a controversial Hindu temple on the site of a razed mosque.
Modi’s party, which has hailed the opening of the temple as the ruling government’s crowning achievement, is hoping it will help catapult the prime minister to a record third successive term.
Its opening was seen as a political triumph for the populist leader, who is seeking to transform the country from a secular democracy into a Hindu state.
It also fulfilled a longstanding demand of the majority Hindus.
The northern city swarmed with voters on Monday, many of them Hindu devotees, lining up in scorching heat as India began the fifth phase of its six-week-long staggered national election.
Modi’s Hindu nationalist politics have resonated with many supporters, and most polls show his Bharatiya Janata Party in the lead.
But it’s not clear whether that fervour can carry him to victory as Indians face rising unemployment and inflation.
Sudha Pandey, a teacher, said she isn’t sure whether the opening of the temple will benefit Modi’s party, and said democracy means taking everyone into consideration, not just one group.
"Decision making should take contributions from everyone. That is what our democracy should be and that is what our constitution says,” she told The Associated Press.
During election campaign, Modi has also increasingly used anti-Muslim rhetoric in his speeches.
He has called Muslims “infiltrators,” insinuated that they produce more children and accused the opposition parties of planning to loot wealth from the country’s Hindus and redistribute it among Muslims.
AP video by Rafiq Maqbool and Piyush Nagpal
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