Gyanvapi row: Amid the ongoing dispute between the Hindu and Muslim sides over the Gyanvapi mosque issue, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the Gyanvapi complex cannot be called a mosque. In an interview with the news agency ANI, CM Yogi said that the Muslim side should accept its historical mistake and propose a solution.
When asked about the solution for the Gyanvapi and Kashi Kashi Vishwanath Temple issue, the Uttar Pradesh CM said, "If we call it masjid, then there will be a dispute. One should be able to see. What is Trishul doing inside the masjid? We have not kept it there, right? There is a jyotirlinga. There are symbols of deities inside the premises. The walls are shouting and saying. And I believe that this proposal must come from the Muslim community admitting that there has been a historic mistake, and we believe that the blunder should be corrected."
Allahabad High Court verdict on Aug 3
The UP CM's interview comes even as the Allahabad High Court is set to deliver a verdict on a plea against a Varanasi district court order directing the Archaeological Survey of India to conduct a survey to determine if the Gyanvapi mosque was built upon a temple. The Allahabad High Court will deliver its judgement on the scientific survey of the Gyanvapi mosque on August 3. The court had stopped the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) survey till then.
All about Gyanvapi case
Several petitions have been filed before the Supreme Court, Allahabad High Court and Varanasi Court alleging that the mosque was built by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb by demolishing the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in the 16th century.
A Varanasi-based lawyer, Vijay Shankar Rastogi, had filed a petition in the lower court claiming illegality in the construction of the Gyanvapi mosque and sought an archaeological survey of the mosque. This came in December 2019 after the Supreme Court verdict in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi title dispute.
The Varanasi court in April 2021 directed the ASI to carry out the survey and submit its report. However, the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board and the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee that runs the Gyanvapi mosque contested the petition by Rastogi and also opposed the Varanasi court's order for a survey of the mosque.
The matter then reached the Allahabad High Court and after post-hearing all the parties involved, it ordered an interim stay on the direction to the ASI for conducting the survey. The high court in its order said that as per the Places of Worship Act, 1991, the law prohibits any change in the religious character of a place of worship from as it existed on August 15, 1947.
'Shivling found inside a reservoir on mosque complex'
In April, a Varanasi court ordered a video survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex after the petition. The Gyanvapi mosque survey was concluded on May 16. The Hindu side in the matter has claimed that a 'Shivling' was found inside a reservoir on the mosque complex during the survey. The Muslim side, however, dismissed the claim and said it was only a 'fountain'.
Parishad (VHP) and the RSS during the campaign for the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya along with the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah Masjid in Mathura. They claimed that all three mosques were built after demolishing Hindu temples.
