4 min readDehradunMar 17, 2025 04:12 AM IST
First published on: Mar 16, 2025 at 03:18 PM IST
Kedarnath MLA Asha Nautiyal has demanded that non-Hindus be banned from the region, alleging that they were “maligning the faith by indulging in practices that hurt the sentiments of the locals”. Congress has called the statement an affront to her position.
Speaking to the media Sunday, Nautiyal said: “I conducted a meeting with locals and they informed me that non-Hindus are hurting the religious sentiments there. People from across the world go to worship Baba Kedar so those people (non-Hindus) should be banned from going there. The local businessmen also demanded that such things should be discouraged,” Nautiyal, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said, adding that all four dhams where people hurt sentiments of Hindus should ban non-Hindus.
Supporting her statement, BJP media-in-charge Manveer Singh Chauhan told The Indian Express, “The BJP backs her statements because it is about the sentiments of Hinduism. These four pilgrimages are important in Sanatan Dharma and people take this pilgrimage in lakhs there every year.”
Chauhan said that the businessmen in the region have alleged that liquor and meat were sold in Kedarnath. “Over the last few years, there has been news of disruption by Muslims and they have been selling meat in the region. This was raked up by the businessmen in Kedarnath. It’s wrong to conduct such businesses in this holy abode. There are liquor shops as well in the guise of other businesses,” he added.
According to the excise policy of the state, liquor is banned near religious places.
Meanwhile, Congress president Karan Mahara said that it was unfortunate that an MLA is speaking in this manner for political mileage.
“Wrong and right cannot be dictated based on one’s religion. She has taken an oath under the Constitution and India is a country which treats all its citizens equally before law. You have levelled several allegations and are the MLA, so try to prevent people from engaging in such matters. Why target just minorities? Every citizen should be seen as a citizen,” he said.
He accused the MLA and the dispensation of being silent about the gold plating controversy in the temple.
In 2023, a senior priest at the Kedarnath Temple who is also the vice president of Char Dham Mahapanchayat, alleged that gold inside the sanctum sanctorum had turned into brass. He claimed that this was a scam of Rs 125 crore. In 2022, silver plating on the walls inside the temple were replaced with gold donated by a Mumbai-based businessman.
“Where is the 233 kg which went missing from the temple. There has not been any investigation into this. Why hasn’t Asha Nautiyal ji spoken of such a pressing issue so far?” he asked.
Nautiyal was elected in October in the Kedarnath bypolls. The bypolls were necessitated after the death of incumbent BJP MLA Shaila Rawat. Nautiyal had previously won the seat in 2002 and 2007, establishing herself as a key figure in the party’s hill strategy. However, the political landscape shifted dramatically in 2012, when Shaila Rani Rawat, then with Congress, defeated Nautiyal by over 2,000 votes.
This comes at a time when the Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan in the neighbouring Uttar Pradesh rejected a demand that the clothes used to dress the temple deities should not come from artisans of a certain religious group.
The demand, made by Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Mukti Sangharsh Nyas leader Dinesh Sharma, has sparked a row.
According to the excise policy of the state, liquor is banned near religious places. (File Photo) 
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