After Taj Mahal, right-wing activists clamour for naming iconic Qutub Minar as Vishnu Stambh

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 10

After Taj Mahal, rightwing outfits are now demanding that the iconic Qutub Minar in Delhi be named as ‘Vishnu Stambh’ since it was a Vishnu temple. Activists of organisations identified as United Hindu Front and Rashtrawadi Shiv Sena chanted ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ at the heritage site following which they were loaded into buses by the Delhi Police as they shouted ‘Jai Shri Ram’.

BJP leader and president of Rashtrawadi Shiv Sena Jai Bhagwan Goyal claimed the monument was built by the “great king Vikramaditya” but Mughal ruler Qutub-ud-din Aibak “claimed credit for it”.

“When Qutab-ud-din Aibak came to India, he demolished Hindu and Jain temples and started calling it Qutub Minar. This is not Qutub Minar, it is Vishnu Stambh”.

“It is well known and clearly shows on the walls that it was constructed from the material after demolishing 27 temples. There are statues of Hindu gods in the complex. Any Hindu will feel angered…idols of Ganesh have been kept upside down and inside a cage to insult Hindu sentiments,” he said

In a memorandum to Home Minister Amit Shah, Goyal said “idols inside the ‘Minar’ should be shifted to a respectable place like a museum, and pooja-aarti restarted in the temple. As there was a grand Vishnu temple at this place, it should be named as the Vishnu Stambh”.

Right wing groups have also been insisting that the Taj Mahal was in fact ‘Tejo Mahalya’ and should be treated as one.

A BJP leader recently filed a petition in the Allahabad High Court to open more than 22 closed rooms of the monument to ascertain reports of “hidden” idols of Hindu deities.

So far the Archaeological Survey of India’s (ASI) has been silent on the controversy triggered by BJP leaders.

The Taj Mahal petition was filed by Rajneesh Singh, BJP media in-charge of Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya district

The claims come at a time when Hindu groups are pushing for two other major sites—the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi Masjid complex in Varanasi and the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Eidgah complex in Mathura. In all these cases, rightwing supporters are alleging that Hindu structures were demolished to build Islamic structures.