Mosques should be voluntarily shifted away from temples: Nishad

Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister Sanjay Nishad on Wednesday said mosques should be voluntarily shifted from places wherever temples exist in their vicinity.

Talking to mediapersons in Baghpat, Nishad said, “Jahan bhi mandir hai, aur wahan masjid bani hui hai… saare masjidon ko, main toh chahunga un logon ne swatha jis tarah se Ram mandir se hatt gaya aur Ram mandir aaram se ban raha hai aur masjid alag se ban raha hai, waise har mandiron ke bagal se masjid hatt jaana chahiye… Hume hatne ki nahi, balki doosre Bharat ke sanskriti hai agar wo dharmik puja karna chahte hai toh kahin banakar puja kar sakte hai. (Wherever there is a temple and a mosque nearby, I want mosques to be shifted voluntarily just like what happened with the Ram Temple, where the temple is being constructed without a hitch and the mosque is being built in another place. We don’t need to move; other religions of Indian culture can construct their places of worship wherever they want to).”

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Nishad, who holds the portfolio of the fisheries department, is president of NISHAD Party, which contested the 2022 Assembly elections in alliance with the ruling BJP. The party won six seats.

Welcoming the government’s decision to conduct survey of madrasas in the state, Nishad alleged that “terrorists and criminals are found to have links with madrasas”. The minister also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath for “making the state free of riots”.

Earlier this month, the UP government announced that it would be conducting a survey of unrecognised madrasas in the state to gather information about the number of teachers, curriculum, and basic facilities available there, among others.