Mayawati accuses SP leader of stoking religious couldron for pre-poll mileage

1. समाजवादी पार्टी के नेता श्री स्वामी प्रसाद मौर्य का ताजा बयान कि बद्रीनाथ सहित अनेकों मन्दिर बौद्ध मठों को तोड़कर बनाये गये हैं तथा आधुनिक सर्वे अकेले ज्ञानवापी मस्जिद का क्यों बल्कि अन्य प्रमुख मन्दिरों का भी होना चाहिए, नए विवादों को जन्म देने वाला यह विशुद्ध राजनीतिक बयान।

— Mayawati (@Mayawati) July 30, 2023

Mayawati also asked Maurya why he never raised such a demand when he was a minister in the BJP government. “Maurya was a minister in the BJP government for a long time, why did he not put such pressure on his party and the government in this regard? And now creating such a religious controversy at the time of elections. Buddhist and Muslim communities are not going to be misled by them,” she said.

Maurya, the SP national general secretary, had recently claimed that Badrinath, a Hindu pilgrimage site, was a Buddhist monastery till the 8th century.

The SP leader also said authorities must do a survey on what lay before the temple where Gyanvapi mosque now stands.

“If there has to be a survey, then there should also be a survey of what lay there before the temple. All places of Hindu religion were earlier Buddhist monasteries. Temples were built by demolishing Buddhist monasteries,” he had said.

Maurya had in January this year courted another controversy when he demanded expunging of certain verses in Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas, which, he claimed, talk about caste and insult a large section of society.

The Allahabad High Court had on Thursday reserved its decision in Gyanvapi survey case. The court will pronounce the verdict on August 3. Till then the stay on ASI survey will remain in force.

The district court of Varanasi had recently ordered the Archaeological Department of India (ASI) to conduct a scientific survey of the Gyanvapi mosque complex, except for the wazoo Khana. But the Muslim side reached the Supreme Court, which directed the high court to hear the matter.