Ideological assault: Ex-bureaucrats flag concern to PM post Ajmer survey order

Days after a court ordered a survey of the Ajmer Sharif dargah, a group of former bureaucrats and diplomats has written to PM Narendra Modi, seeking his intervention to halt all “illegal and pernicious” activities that are an “ideological assault” on India’s civilisational heritage and pervert the idea of an inclusive country.

Stating that he alone can halt “all illegal, pernicious activities”, the group has reminded Modi that he himself had sent “chadars” on the occasion of the annual Urs of the 12th-century saint, Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, as a homage to his message of peace and harmony.

The group of former bureaucrats and diplomats, including former Delhi Lt Governor Najeeb Jung, former High Commissioner of India to the UK Shiv Mukherjee, former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi, former Vice-Chief of the Army Staff Lt Gen Zameeruddin Shah and former RBI Deputy Governor Ravi Vira Gupta, wrote to the PM on November 29 about unknown fringe groups claiming to represent Hindu interests and demanding archaeological surveys of medieval mosques and dargahs to prove the previous existence of temples at these sites.

“Despite the clear provisions of the Places of Worship Act, the courts too seem to respond to such demands with undue alacrity and haste,” they said.

The contents of the letter were confirmed by two of the signatories to it. “It appears unimaginable, for example, that a local court should order a survey on the 12th-century dargah of the Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, one of the most sacred Sufi sites in Asia not just for Muslims but for all Indians,” they wrote.

“The very thought that a mendicant saint, a fakir, who was an integral part of the Sufi/Bhakti movement unique to the Indian subcontinent and a paragon of compassion, tolerance and harmony, could have destroyed any temple to assert his authority is ridiculous,” they wrote. On November 27, a civil court in Ajmer issued notices to the Ajmer dargah committee, the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) after a petition was filed by Vishnu Gupta, national president of the Hindu Sena, claiming that the dargah was originally a Shiva temple.

Fast-track temple cases: Hindu groups

Mathura: Hindu outfits at a convention sought fast-track courts to expedite the hearings of Mathura and Kashi disputes. The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti announced an online petition seeking fast-track courts. PTI