(CNN) — India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday inaugurated Abu Dhabi’s first Hindu temple, the largest in the United Arab Emirates, boosting his credentials as a global statesman months before he heads to the polls in a nationwide election where he is seeking a rare third term in power.
The BAPS Hindu Mandir, built on a sprawling 27-acre site in the Abu Dhabi desert, is the city’s first traditional Hindu stone mandir, its pink sandstone columns topped by seven spires representing the number of Sheikhs that rule each of the Emirates.
Modi was greeted with a hug by the country’s President, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and presented with the Guard of Honor, showing how close the two nations have come in their strategic and economic relations.
But while Islam is the official religion of the UAE, Modi’s trip comes as Muslims in India say they feel marginalized and threatened as Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party’s Hindu nationalist policies gain momentum in the world’s largest democracy.
Yet, analysts expect this will not present an issue for Modi during his visit, given India’s rising prominence, its growing economy and strategic position on the global stage. And back home, analysts say Modi’s leading role in the temple’s inauguration could give his party a boost in the buildup to the election in a few months’ time.
In his decade of power, Modi has created an image of himself as “the protector of Hinduism,” said New Delhi based political analyst Asim Ali, and is now taking that message beyond India’s borders.
“He’s hoisting the flag of Hinduism across the world. It’s like the religion and pride of India going overseas,” Ali said.
“He’s sending a message to the world: India is the protector of the Hindu religion.”
‘Important cultural and political project’
The opening of the Abu Dhabi Temple comes just a few weeks after Modi inaugurated the controversial Ram Mandir, a temple built on the foundations of a centuries-old mosque that was torn down by hardline Hindu crowds in the early 1990s in northern India.
That ceremony was seen as a seismic shift away from modern India’s secular founding principles and was hailed by Hindu nationalists as a crowning moment in their decades-long campaign to reshape the nation.
The temple opening in Abu Dhabi “must be seen as a political operation for Modi vis-à-vis constituencies abroad and at home,” said Nicolas Blarel, Associate Professor of International Relations at the Institute of Political Science, Leiden University in The Netherlands.
The temple has a storied history as its UAE-based devotees have long advocated for its construction, said Blarel, who focuses on foreign policy in South Asia and the Middle East.
