Opposition slams BJP over Ajmer row
Opposition leaders on Thursday criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh after a court accepted a plea by Hindu Sena claiming Ajmer Sharif to be Lord Shiva’s temple.
Stating that the dargah is 800 years old, AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi said Prime Ministers starting from Nehru have been sending ‘Chadar’ to the dargah. “PM Modi too sends ‘Chadar’ there. Why have BJP-RSS spread this hatred regarding mosques and dargahs?” he asked.
Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Dimple Yadav accused the BJP of attempting to take the country backward. She said the current government was not prioritising youth employment and is instead focusing on issues that distract the public from more pressing concerns.
Congress MP Imran Masood urged PM Modi to look into the matter and cautioned that events like this might disturb communal harmony. “Such things will set the whole country on fire. What is happening? The Prime Minister should look into this matter, and the Supreme Court should take cognisance of this matter”, he said.
The CPI(M) politburo in a statement said the decision of a civil court in Ajmer to entertain a petition seeking a survey of the Ajmer Sharif Dargah to ascertain if there was a temple beneath it, was unwarranted and had no legal standing. It goes against the provisions of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which decrees that no legal dispute can be raised on a religious place that existed prior to August 15, 1947.
“The Supreme Court must immediately intervene to put an end to such legal proceedings in line with the Places of Worship Act, which the Court itself had upheld in the Ayodhya judgment of 2019”, the statement added.
“The Ajmer dargah dispute is yet another attempt at fuelling communal passions, right out of the RSS’ playbook. It has now become habitual of right-wing organisations of filing such frivolous lawsuits, local courts accepting them and ordering hasty survey exercises of places of worship belonging to minority communities”, CPI Rajya Sabha floor leader P Sandosh Kumar said.
