Claiming Muslim religious places will weaken rule of law in country: Opposition criticizes BJP, RSS over Ajmer row

New Delhi, Nov 28: Opposition leaders criticized the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) over claiming religious places of Muslim community, saying it will weaken the rule of law in the country.

The opposition remarks come after Rajasthan court accepted the plea by Hindu Sena claiming Ajmer Sharif Dargah to be Lord Shiva’s temple.

Pointing out that the dargah is 800 years old, AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi said, “When Queen Elizabeth visited in 1911, they constructed a water house there. Prime Minister 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?”

“Why are the lower courts not hearing the Places of Worship Act?” The Times of India quoted Owaisi as having said.

“They have made the ministry for minority Affairs a party (in this case). What will the Modi government tell them? Why are the lower courts not hearing the Places of Worship Act? You will go everywhere and say that there was something else in place of a mosque or dargah. Next time, a Muslim would also go somewhere and say that this didn’t exist here. Where will this stop? What about the rule of law? Where will the democracy go?” Owaisi asked.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Dimple Yadav accused the BJP of attempting to take the country backward. She claimed that the current government is not prioritizing youth employment and is instead focusing on issues that distract the public from more pressing concerns.

“We want the Sambhal incident to be discussed in the Lok Sabha. We have been assured by the Speaker that he will get it discussed. There is a complete roadmap by which UP police are harassing and manipulating the people…We are saying that this has been conducted in a well-panned manner,” she said.

Congress MP Imran Masood urged PM Modi to look into the matter and cautioned that events like this might disturb country’s peace.

“Such things will set the whole country on fire. What is happening? The PM should look into this matter, and the Supreme Court should take cognizance of this matter. Where do you want to sideline a whole community? You are not leaving their religious places and properties,” he said.

“Where do you want to sideline us? Where do we go? Exile us from the country. Under which mosques will you look for temples? Is there any limit or not? They (the central government) have kept aside the Worship Act 1991. Will they (the BJP) burn the whole nation for their political benefit? Jab aag lagti hai to sabke ghar lagti hai (when the fire rages, it rages everywhere),” he said.

An Ajmer court issued notices on Wednesday to the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) regarding a lawsuit filed by a Hindu organization.

The suit claimed the site of the dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti was originally the location of a Shiva temple, based on “historical evidence” suggesting that the 13^th-century Sufi saint’s white marble shrine was built over the temple before it became his tomb.