On Saturday, September 5, as members of a Hindu sect were set to make a splash visit to the Eiffel Tower, an organisation of progressive Indians living in France held a public meeting in Paris to shed some light on the religious group and the international spread of Hindu nationalism, which has been turbocharged during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tenure. The French press was invited to the event organised by the Indian Alliance Paris (IAP) and co-hosted by three other organisations, including France’s CGT union. Speakers at the public meeting included activists and researchers from France, as well as the US and India, who joined via video link. They focused on the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), a sect that was opening a large new temple in a Paris suburb. Issues were raised and addressed, a documentary was screened, and a press statement was released after the event. But there was not much coverage in the French press of a weekend meeting held by one of many diaspora groups in Paris. That changed on Monday, when the Eiffel Tower was closed after staff went on strike over female workers being removed and replaced by men during a private tour by a BAPS delegation of the Paris landmark. Read moreEiffel Tower closes due to strike over exclusion of female staff Suddenly, BAPS and its giant temple in Bussy-Saint-Georges, an eastern suburb located between the French capital and Disneyland Paris, was all over the news. Audiences got a crash course on a sect practicing a “very conservative form of Hinduism” with “close links” to the Modi administration. Watch more‘Was this a state visit?’ Indian opposition leader raises serious questions over Paris BAPS temple “We tried to highlight this issue. We tried to tell them that these people are very conservative and they are very misogynistic. But it didn’t really come into the spotlight,” said IAP secretary Joy Banerjee, listing the many ways his organisation attempted to reach out to left-leaning French political parties. “Suddenly, the mask was dropped on Monday because of the strike.” The Eiffel Tower reopened to the public on Tuesday. BAPS released a statement noting that, “To our knowledge, at no time was access to the Eiffel Tower denied to anyone. Nevertheless, we sincerely apologise for any pain or inconvenience caused.”