No love lost, Mayawati takes aim at former lieutenant Maurya over Hindu temples survey call

“The latest political statement of Samajwadi Party leader Shri Swami Prasad Maurya that many temples, including Badrinath, have been built by demolishing Buddhist monasteries and why modern survey should be done not only of the Gyanvapi Masjid but also of other major temples, is intended to give rise to new controversies,” Mayawati tweeted in Hindi.

Claiming that Buddhist and Muslim communities were “not going to be misled by such remarks,” Mayawati wrote: “Why did Mr Maurya not put such a pressure in this regard when he was a minister in the BJP government for a long time? And now by creating such a religious controversy at the time of elections, is it not his and SP’s disgusting politics?”

1. समाजवादी पार्टी के नेता श्री स्वामी प्रसाद मौर्य का ताजा बयान कि बद्रीनाथ सहित अनेकों मन्दिर बौद्ध मठों को तोड़कर बनाये गये हैं तथा आधुनिक सर्वे अकेले ज्ञानवापी मस्जिद का क्यों बल्कि अन्य प्रमुख मन्दिरों का भी होना चाहिए, नए विवादों को जन्म देने वाला यह विशुद्ध राजनीतिक बयान।

— Mayawati (@Mayawati) July 30, 2023

The BJP, too, hit out at Maurya, saying he has been insulting “sanatan dharma” again and again and it has become a “disgusting mentality” of Samajwadi Party leaders. “The recent statement given by SP leader Swami Prasad Maurya about Baba Kedarnath, Baba Badrinath and Shri Jagannath Puri, the main centres of faith of Hindus, is not only controversial but also shows his low mentality and petty politics. His statement is hurting the feelings of crores of Hindus in the country and Uttar Pradesh and creating hatred in the society, he should apologise for this statement. Akhilesh Yadav, the SP chief, should clear his stand on this matter and clarify whether his party concurs with Maurya’s statement,” UP state BJP chief Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary tweeted.

सनातन धर्म का बार-बार अपमान करना समाजवादी पार्टी एवं उनके नेताओं की घृणित मानसिकता बन चुकी है। हाल ही में समाजवादी पार्टी के नेता स्वामी प्रसाद मौर्य द्वारा हिंदुओं की आस्था के प्रमुख केंद्र बाबा केदारनाथ, बाबा बद्रीनाथ एवं श्री जगन्नाथ पुरी के बारे में दिया गया बयान न सिर्फ…

— Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary (@Bhupendraupbjp) July 30, 2023

Maurya’s statement on carrying out a survey of Hindu temples came after the Varanasi District court directed the Archaeological Survey of India ASI to do a “scientific survey” of the Gyanvapi mosque premises to “find out” whether the “present structure” was “constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple”. The Allahabad High Court last Thursday reserved its judgment on an application filed by the Gyanvapi mosque committee challenging the Varanasi district court’s order.

Maurya, who switched over from the BJP to the SP in the run-up to the UP Assembly elections last year, had recently sparked a row by saying that Ramcharitmanas, written by Goswami Tulsidas, was “derogatory towards women, Backwards and Dalits”.

Mayawati’s statement singling out Maurya was not something common. In his two-decade stint in the BSP, Maurya had served as Leader of the Opposition in UP Assembly, was a minister in three governments, and was party’s UP unit chief before he was elevated to the post of national general secretary in 2012. A Buddhist and a follower of Ambedkar, Maurya is considered to be well-versed in the BSP’s ideological principles. He was not only the OBC face of the party but also used to be the only BSP leader who was authorised by Mayawati to speak to the media.

Before he quit BSP in June 2016, Maurya had accused Mayawati of deceiving Dalits and taking bribes for allotting election tickets.Mayawati, in turn, had alleged that Maurya quit the BSP because he wanted election tickets for his son Utkrist and daughter Sanghmitra.

Ahead of the 2022 Assembly polls, when Maurya resigned from the BJP and joined the SP, he had said that Mayawati became the chief minister only when he was in the BSP. A day later, Mayawati called him a “dal-badlu’ (partyhopper) and said, “Wah kya mujhe mukhya mantri banayega. (who is he to make me CM)…The fact is that his fortunes brightened only when he joined the BSP. He had been in different parties in the past but never won elections. He became an MLA only after joining the BSP.”