‘Avoid calling any disputed structure a mosque’

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that “reclaiming heritage” was not a bad thing. He also slammed claims that the area where Maha Kumbh was being held was Waqf property.

“Reclaiming heritage is not a bad thing. Sanatan proof is now visible in Sambhal. Disputed structures should not be called mosques. India won’t be run on the Muslim League mentality,” Chief Minister Yogi said in Prayagraj on Friday, referring to the Shahi Jama Masjid dispute in Sambhal that sparked violence last year.

Yogi Adityanath’s remarks come days after Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat expressed concern over the raft of temple-mosque disputes and advised people against raking up such issues.

Speaking on the violence in Sambhal over a court-mandated survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid, Chief Minister Yogi highlighted that the Puranas mention Sambhal as the birthplace of Kalki, the tenth incarnation of Lord Vishnu.

The violence in Sambhal claimed five lives and left over 20 injured.

“A Harihar temple was demolished in Sambhal in 1596 and a structure was built. It is even mentioned in Ain-i-Akbari,” the chief minister said.

The petitioners have claimed that it was mentioned in Baburnama and the Ain-i-Akbari that a Harihar temple was at the site where the Jama Masjid now stands. The Ain-i-Akbari is a document on the administration of the Mughal Empire under Akbar. It was written by his court historian Abul Fazl.

The chief minister also took a swipe at the Samajwadi Party over the cleanliness of the Ganga, claiming that the prime minister of Mauritius avoided taking a dip in the holy river after seeing the filth in the area when he visited the Kumbh in 2013.

“In 2013, when the prime minister of Mauritius came to India to take a holy dip in the Ganga, he went back after seeing pollution, filth and mismanagement during the Kumbh,” Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said. In 2013, the Samajwadi Party was in power in Uttar Pradesh with Akhilesh Yadav as the chief minister.

He asserted that the Ganga has become clean now due to the work of the double-engine government.

“When the Mauritian prime minister visited Varanasi in 2019, they visited Prayagraj where Kumbh was going on. He, along with his family, took a holy dip at the Sangam after seeing the change that had happened in six years,” Yogi said.

The chief minister also blasted the Waqf Board after a cleric claimed that the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj was being held on Waqf land. The chief minister emphasised that the state government would reclaim every inch of land that has been taken under the pretext of Waqf.

“The Kumbh has been a symbol of India’s heritage for thousands of years and has always taken place here. It is not the Waqf Board but a board of land mafias,” he said.

Chief Minister Yogi also said that the government was investigating all such occupied land, and amendments had been made to the law. “Wherever the word ‘Waqf’ appears, it will be investigated to see in whose name the land was originally registered, and efforts will be made to return it to its rightful owners,” he said.