Controversy has arisen regarding the historic and gold-studded Jama Masjid of Aligarh. In response to an RTI, the Municipal Corporation has said that it is built on a public place. After the BJP politicised the issue, Municipal Commissioner Gaurang Rathi gave a clarification.
In response to an RTI, the Municipal Corporation had described it as a public property as well as a historical heritage of the city. Politics intensified over the civic body’s comment and BJP leaders are demanding removal of Jama Masjid from public property. In response, SP leaders are asking the administration to take strict steps on such issues. Now, the Municipal Corporation is on the backfoot in this matter.
The intensification of the politics regarding the Jama Masjid has started with the reply given by the Municipal Corporation to RTI activist Pandit Keshav Dev Sharma. The corporation had said in response that the construction of Jama Masjid at Uparkot was done 300 years ago in a public place. This mosque is a historical heritage, in which the ownership of this mosque has not been shown to anyone.
After receiving the RTI reply, Keshav Dev has written a letter to the District Magistrate to immediately demolish the mosque, saying that the mosque is illegal.
He has said that if the mosque is not demolished, he will take refuge in the court. The construction of Jama Masjid was started in the year 1724 by the governor of Kol tehsil, Sabit Khan, which was completed in the year 1728.
BJP leader and former mayor Shakuntala Bharti said that the mosque has been declared illegal in response to the RTI given by the Municipal Corporation regarding Jama Masjid. So what is illegal should be broken. Be it a mosque or something. She said that of course Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's bulldozer will run here too.