BHOPAL, May 22 :A Hindutva outfit, Sanskriti Bachao Manch, has claimed that the Jama Masjid located in old Bhopal’s Chowk Bazar locality of Indian state Madhya Pradesh was built in the 19th century on a Shiva temple. While the Gyanvapi mosque is being claimed by Hindu plaintiff, a similar issue seems to be brewing in Madhya Pradesh with a fresh instance surrounding the 19th century Jama Masjid located in Bhopal’s Chowk Bazar area.
The issue gained momentum after a group of Hindutva activists on Thursday met the state Home Minister Narottam Mishra over the matter.
Sanskriti Bachao Manch headed by Chandrashekhar Tiwari submitted a memorandum demanding a detailed survey of the Jama Masjid.
Tiwari said that he is preparing to file a petition in the local court over the issue in the coming days.
“We have demanded a detailed archaeological survey of the Jama Masjid by the state government. We will also file a petition in the court seeking a survey and excavation to bare the history of the mosque built over a temple called �Sabha Mandap’,” Tiwari told the press after meeting Mishra on Thursday.
Notably, the same issue has been raised by another Hindutva outfit called the �Hindu Dharma Sena’.
However, this is not the only mosque’ in Madhya Pradesh that is being claimed these days. Earlier this month, an organisation called the �Hindu Front for Justice’ filed a PIL in the high court claiming that the Bhojshala monument located in Dhar district belongs to the Hindu community.
A PIL was filed challenging the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) order of 2003, which imposed restriction on Hindus to worship at Bhojshala daily.
Subsequently, the Indore bench issued notices to the ASI, Centre and the MP government seeking their response on the matter.
Bhojshala is an ASI protected 11th century monument which Hindus claim is a temple of Vagdevi (Saraswati), while the Muslim community treats it as the Kamal Maula Mosque.
As per the arrangement made by ASI on April 7, 2003, Hindus perform puja on the premises every Tuesday, while Muslims offer namaz in the complex on Fridays.
“Only the members of the Hindu community have a fundamental right under Article 25 of the Constitution of India to perform puja and rituals at the place of goddess Vagdevi within the premises of Saraswati Sadan, commonly known as Bhojshala situated in Dhar,” the petition claimed.
“Members of the Muslim community have no right to use any portion of the aforesaid property for any religious purposes,” it added.
The petitioner also urged the court to direct the New Delhi to bring back the idol of goddess Saraswati from the museum in London, and re-establish the same within the Bhojshala complex.
The plea has cited that the then rulers of Dhar had installed the holy statue at Bhojshala in 1034 AD and it was taken to London in 1857 by the British.
One of the petitioners, Ashish Goyal, said, “We have now started fighting legally to reclaim our religious place. The court found our petition comprehensive and issued notice.” – (With inputs from IANS)
Dubbing it a “political” move, the Congress says its a “diversionary” tactic by the BJP to push the issues of inflation, unemployment and rupee downfall into the back-burner
Terming the Gyanvapi case a “diversionary tactic” of the ruling BJP, the Congress has demanded strict adherence to the provision of the 1991 Act in letter and spirit saying any kind of change in the status of places of worship would lead to a massive conflict.
Seeking maintenance of status quo at the places of worship, Congress General Secretary Ajay Maken said: “The matter is under the purview of the Supreme Court and we hope justice would be delivered as the case of Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute was decided on the basis of the Places of Worship Act, 1991, which says that the religious character of a place of worship shall continue to be the same as it existed” on August 15, 1947.”
Dubbing it a “political” move, the Congress says its a “diversionary” tactic by the BJP to push the issues of inflation, unemployment and rupee downfall into the back-burner.
Recently, former Home Minister and senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram had said that the status quo on all places of worship should be maintained else it would lead to a conflict.
“Places of Worship Act was passed by the Narasimha Rao government with the lone exception of Ram Janmabhoomi. All other places should have the status quo as any kind of change could lead to a huge conflict,” he had said.
The Congress is in a catch 22 situation as the party in its ‘Chintan Shivir’ has come up with a social and economic agenda to counter the BJP. The party leaders, who deliberated over the issue, said that ideological differences with the BJP is core to the Congress politics and to fight for the people’s cause is the key takeaway from the brainstorming session. But the party has now been put on test in Gyanvapi row which could be a new controversy in political discourse as it has rethink about the strategy on the issue.
“The data of caste census of backward classes by the Congress-UPA government is deliberately not being made public by the government. The direct goal behind this is to deprive the backward classes of their rights. The Indian National Congress resolves to begin a decisive struggle for the demand to make the caste census data public and get the backward classes their rights,” the party has said in its resolution.
The Congress thought to fight the BJP and counter it on Hindutva through a social and economic agenda but now the party has to adopt a new stance–even Rahul Gandhi has alleged that -“Distracting people won’t change facts. India looks a lot like Sri Lanka,” Rahul tweeted.
To counter BJP’s Hindutva, Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi has announced two major mass contact programmes — one is the agitational programme against inflation to restart from June 15 and the footmarch ‘Bharat Jodo’, from October 2.
The Congress resolution also mentioned about the fight for all sections of society and particularly about the caste census, which is a big OBC push and the Congress leaders pointed that it may affect the BJP’s social engineering in many states, especially in the election-going states. -IANS