Bhojshala bluster

They're playing political hide-and-seek in Madhya Pradesh and the 8220;Bhojshala issue8221; has been found again. It is the turn of 8220;...

They8217;re playing political hide-and-seek in Madhya Pradesh and the 8220;Bhojshala issue8221; has been found again. It is the turn of 8220;development8221; now to go into hiding. Until the time comes for it to be discovered once more by one or the other party on the prowl. In the mad pre-election whirl in Madhya Pradesh, these are unpredictable times. Just when poll trackers were getting convinced that the BJP had given up trying to do a Gujarat in MP, just when it seemed that Digvijay Singh8217;s own ardour for Hindutva had waned, and that elections in this state would be fought on governance and governance alone, the irresistible combine of state BJP chief Uma Bharati and Union Minister of State for Tourism and Culture Bhavana Chikalia has stoked the dying Bhojshala controversy. And just when we were beginning to enjoy the Arun Jaitley-Digvijay Singh spat.

This skirmish had hotted up ever since Jaitley unleashed statistics culled from reports prepared by the Planning Commission and the CII. The figures squarely put MP in the dock and the state8217;s chief minister immediately countered them with growth statistics during his rule in the state. At the centre of this particular squabble were the issues that should surely be in the middle of every pre-poll squabble: Education, health, employment generation, infrastructure development and welfare of weaker sections.

But sadly, the Bharati-Chikalia duo may just have changed the subject again. Despite the fact that they so visibly do not have the facts on their side. The visiting minister, who is also in charge of the Archaeological Survey of India ASI, has claimed that there was never a mosque, only a temple, in the disputed complex at Dhar. As this paper has pointed out, that assertion goes against what the ASI has said on this issue, time and again. In a reply filed in 1998, on behalf of the secretary, Department of Culture, and the ASI before the MP High Court, it was stated that the 8220;factual identity8221; of the present structure is 8220;not definitely known8221;, and cannot be ascertained from the study of the structure itself. Perhaps the minister needs to look into the files of her department. Meanwhile, the people must helplessly wait for the spotlight to veer to development again.