This is an archive article published on December 23, 2021
Shiv Sena mouthpiece corners BJP on Ayodhya land deals, calls it ‘chor bazaar’
“BJP has been lecturing that Shiv Sena has divorced with Hindutva for the sake of power. But BJP should keep this commercial Hindutva to itself,” the party said through its mouthpiece Saamna.
The editorial on Saamna further said, “After the Supreme Court verdict on Ayodhya, BJP leaders, MLAs and a Mayor had purchased land in Ayodhya in legal-illegal manner.
Referring to a report by The Indian Express on the Ayodhya land deals, Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna through its editorial Thursday debunked BJP and its Hindutva agenda and called the saffron party a “chor bazaar”.
“BJP’s Hindutva is a kind of a chor bazaar and it is increasingly becoming clearer. The Ayodhya deals are now a part of that chor bazaar,” the Sena mouthpiece said.
Wednesday, The Indian Express published an investigative report that elected public representatives and relatives of state government officials bought land parcels in Ayodhya after the November 9, 2019 Supreme Court verdict clearing construction of a Ram temple in the district. On the same day, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ordered a probe into the land deals.
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The editorial on Saamna further said, “After the Supreme Court verdict on Ayodhya, BJP leaders, MLAs and a Mayor had purchased land in Ayodhya in legal-illegal manner. All these transactions are suspicious and equally shocking.”
It added, “In presence of Prime Minister Modi, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and UP CM Yogi Adityanath, the bhoomi puja for the temple took place. And at that moment, traders in BJP started trading prime plots near the proposed temple site. The temple trust acquired 70 acre land and at the same time, BJP MLAs, corporators and police officials close to the party purchased land and made big investments. The Indian Express has highlighted how MLAs, Mayor, state OBC member, divisional commissioner and other relatives of other officials purchased land worth crores near the temple premises. After the temple is built, the entire area will be transformed, leading to a rise in the land prices. This is the business being done in the name of religion. Who gave their blood? Who died and look who is making a profit? This is a scam.”
The editorial added, “Ayodhya Mayor purchased a piece of land for a few lakhs and in the next five-ten minutes, it was sold to the Ram Janmabhoomi for Rs 16 crore. The mayor is from BJP. This is a chor bazaar in the name of Lord Ram. If anyone is calling this Hindutva, then we need to prostrate before them with folded hands.”
“BJP has been lecturing that Shiv Sena has divorced with Hindutva for the sake of power. But BJP should keep this commercial Hindutva to itself. These people have not even allowed Lord Ram to stay away from their commercial dealings. Someone else died for the temple’s sake and BJP is making gains out of it. Lal Krishna Advani, who led the agitation for the temple at Ayodhya, has been sidelined by BJP which is now setting up business centres in Ayodhya,” it added.
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The mouthpiece further said BJP’s “new Hindutva” will only defame the community. “BJP has developed a technology to usurp land,” Saamna alleged.
It added, “The scam that has surfaced only highlights that in BJP’s Hindutva there is no place for Lord Ram but has place only for business. They want temples in order to take over nearby lands. ‘Ram Naam Satya Hai’ is for others while money and power is for the BJP. People thought they were going to ‘Devachi Alandi’ (God’s Alandi — the temple town of Pune and the birth place of Sant Dnyaneshwar), but BJP is taking them to thieves’ Alandi.”
“BJP has sold the nation but we will not allow them to sell Ayodhya. Because Shiv Sena is holding aloft Hindutva’s saffron flag,” the editorial concluded.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
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