A Congress leader in Hyderabad started a signature campaign to allow namaz at Charminar. However, what infuriated the BJP is his claim that the temple next to it is illegal
According to Congress leader Rashed Khan, prayers were led at the mosque inside Charminar until two decades ago. AFP
Controversies surrounding temples and mosques are keeping our politicians on their toes. After the Qutub Minar in Delhi and the Gyanvapi mosque in Uttar Pradesh, the 16th-century monument Charminar and the adjacent Bhagyalakshmi temple in the Hyderabad are at the centre of a fresh row.
‘Allow namaz at Charminar’
It all began after Congress leader Rashed Khan started a signature campaign seeking the reopening of the mosque inside Charminar for namaz. The mosque is on the top floor of the 1591 monument.
Khan claimed that prayers were earlier held at the Charminar, an Archeological Survey of India (ASI) protected site. However, Muslims were barred from offering namaz at the site two decades ago.
He urged the ASI and the Ministry of Tourism and Culture to allow Muslims to pray at Charminar. “When we spoke to the Ministry of Culture, Kishan Reddy, said there will be a law and order problem. I will take all the signatures and go to the secular CM of Telangana (K Chandrasekhar Rao). If our requests are not addressed, we will do a sit-in protest at the Pragati Bhavan. Wrong promises are being made across the country on mosques,” Khan told news agency ANI.
The Congress leader called the Bhagyalakshmi temple near Charminar an “unauthorised encroached illegal construction”, citing an ASI report. “We believe in Ganga Jamuna tehzeeb. If prayers are happening in the temple, let it happen. But in the same way, our mosque is closed and it should be opened and we should be given permission for the Namaaz,” he added.
Khan demanded the temple be shut down “if ASI is closing the mosque”, reports ANI.
However, the leader did not find support within the party. According to Congress’ Hanumanth Rao, the demand for prayers at the Charminar mosque is not supported by the party.
BJP irked
The Congressman’s comments have not gone down well with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
BJP Telangana chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar told The Indian Express, “Are we asking for Charminar to be moved from near the temple? This demand to reopen the mosque is to create problems for the temple and force it to be removed from there.”
BJP’s former MLC Ram Chander Rao said that Congress was trying to “create communal tension in Hyderabad”, adding that the party had lost ground in the city.
“They are trying to gain ground by raking up communal issues which are concerned with the state government and not at all concerned with the Central government. There is a mosque which is a heritage structure which is closed and there is a temple where people have been worshipping for several years,” Rao said.
The BJP leader added that connecting the two issues (the temple and mosque near Charminar) is an attempt to “provoke communal tension” in the old city calling it an “offence”, reports ANI.
“The state government should step in to maintain law and order and arrest him for creating communal trouble in the city. Both TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samithi) and Congress try to provoke religious sentiments of minorities for their benefits,” he alleged.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has visited the Bhagyalakshmi temple on two ocassions. PTI
The significance of the temple
The Bhagyalakshmi temple is dedicated to Goddess Lakshmi and one of the southeast minars of the monument forms its back well. The temple has been there since the 1960s, reports The Indian Express. However, BJP leaders claim that the temple came up before the Charminar.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited the temple last month and during the 2020 civic elections in Telangana.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath too visited the temple while campaigning in Hyderabad for the civic polls and called for renaming the city as Bhagyanagar after Goddess Bhagyalakshmi. “Some people were asking me if Hyderabad can be renamed Bhagyanagar. I said, why not?” he had said.
ASI on Charminar and the temple
According to ASI officials, no prayers were held at Charminar when it took over the maintenance of the site in 1951. Back then the mosque was open to the public but was closed years later to protect the monument.
According to the ASI rulebook, prayers are allowed at a protected site only if it were a functioning place of worship at the time body took over. The rules prohibit worship at “non-living places”, where there has been no continuity of worship when it became an ASI-protected site.
A guard pillar was erected to protect the Charminar from vehicles and sometimes in the 1960s, it was painted saffron. That’s when people started performing aarti there. When a state road transport bus hit the guard pillar damaging it, a small structure made of bamboo was built overnight and the idol of the goddess was placed, according to a report in The Indian Express.
With inputs from agencies
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