After Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed strong disapproval over the construction of his temple on the outskirts of Rajkot, the Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) demolished it on Thursday evening.
“Have seen the news about a temple being built in my name. I am appalled. This is shocking & against India’s great traditions. Building such temples is not what our culture teaches us. Personally, it made me very sad,” tweeted the Prime Minister early in the morning.
Modi urged those behind the construction of the temple and consecration of his idol not to do it and suggested that if they have the time and resources, they should “devote the same towards fulfilling the dream of a clean India.”
In fact, even before the RMC initiated the demolition of the temple in Kotharia Village, those behind its construction cancelled the consecration ceremony planned to install Modi’s idol in the temple that has been made by expert sculptors from Odisha.
The consecration ceremony was scheduled to be held on Sunday, February 15, but the “temple authorities” covered Modi’s idol and decided to remove it from the temple and instead put the statue of ‘Bharat Mata’ (Mother India) in it.
Fifty-six-year-old Ramesh Undhad was the man who funded the temple project. Undhad is a builder and a BJP member from Rajkot from where Narendra Modi contested the first Assembly election of his life in 2002.
Reacting to Modi’s tweet, Undhad, who contested the Municipal Corporation elections in 2000 on a BJP ticket and lost, said: “If our god (Modi) is unhappy, we would remove his idol from the temple and keep him in our hearts.”
The temple was constructed under the auspices of Om Yuva Group. Interestingly, the group had printed an invitation card claiming that the temple would be inaugurated by Rajkot MP and Union Minister of State for Agriculture, Mohan Kundariya.
Besides, Gujarat’s Cabinet Minister and Modi’s close aide Vijay Rupani, junior Minister Govind Patel and Rajkot Rural MlA Bhanuben Babaria and other BJP leaders were also named as VIP guests.
later, Kundariya clarified that nobody had asked him to inaugurate the temple and people from Rajkot have the habit of writing his name on all invitation cards for social and religious functions without consulting him.
Meanwhile, in the morning vice-chairman of Rajkot city Congress legal cell Jignesh Joshi submitted a memorandum to Rajkot Collector and demanded demolition of the temple with immediate effect as it was constructed illegally. In the memorandum Joshi also demanded action against the members of Om Yuva Group, Kotharia Village Sarpanch and Tehsildar under whose jurisdiction the village comes.
“Modi is a living human being and not god. An individual or a group of individuals giving him status of god is an act of hurting the religious sentiments of the people. Moreover Om Yuva Group is not a registered trust, but it is a group of mere eight to ten people. Under which clause did the Kotharia Village panchayat gave permission to construct the temple,” said Joshi in the memorandum.