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Journalism of Courage
Days after Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami’s move to attend the bhoomi pujan or groundbreaking ceremony of a new Kedarnath temple in Delhi, Uttarakhand Congress has called the event a mockery of faith and “an insult” to Sanatana Dharma and Vedic rituals.
“Just as the BJP previously created dozens of its own Shankaracharyas, in addition to the traditional four (by going) against Vedic tradition, they are now tampering with the glory of Jyotirlingas. If you wanted to build a temple, it could have been like the Akshardham. Why name it after our Chardham? The Kedarnath Dham has its own history and beliefs. It is not a franchise that you can establish anywhere,” a statement by Congress spokespersons Garima Mehra Dasauni and Sheeshpal Bisht said Monday.
Considered one of the most revered shrines for Hindus in India, Uttarakhand’s Kedarnath Dham in Rudraprayag district holds spiritual significance for Hindus. The temple, along with Uttarakhand’s Badrinath, is dedicated to Lord Shiva and is one of the 12 jyotirlingas, considered his devotional representation.
The row comes less than a week after Uttarakhand CM Dhami laid the foundation stone of the temple in Delhi. It also comes on a day that priests at the Rudraprayag temple sat in protest against the new shrine.
The row has put Dhami and the BJP on the backfoot, with both saying the CM was there at the invitation of the Kedarnath Dham Trust Delhi, which is constructing the temple. These clarifications came days after Surendra Rautela, the president of the Kedarnath Dham Trust Delhi, said the temple is meant for those elderly or infirm people who cannot make the Kedarnath pilgrimage.
“We are building the same form which is there (in Uttarakhand)… There the temple is closed for 5-6 months every year due to snowfall, but here the temple will always be open. We are bringing a shila (a holy stone) from Uttarakhand’s Kedarnath and establishing it here,” Rautela said.
BJP state president Mahendra Bhatt said the temple in Delhi was a Kedarnath temple and not a dham, and that the Uttarakhand government had no role to play in it.
Dhami, when asked about it, said, “Symbolic temples may be built in different places, but the jyotirlinga is in Uttarakhand and nowhere else.”
The Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC), a statutory body under the Shri Badarinath and Shri Kedarnath Mandir Act of 1939 to manage Uttarakhand’s Badrinath and Kedarnath temples, also said that the BJP government had no connection with the Delhi temple.
However, BKTC President Ajendra Ajay said in a statement that the committee was looking at the misuse of the temple names for commercial gain and that legal action was under review.
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