Ravidas community protest outside union minister Som Parkash’s Phagwara house

Members of the Ravidasia community held a protest outside Union minister Som Parkash’s house on Wednesday against the demolition of Guru Ravidas temple at Tughlaqabad

Members of the Ravidasia community held a protest outside Union minister Som Parkash’s house on Wednesday against the demolition of Guru Ravidas temple at Tughlaqabad in New Delhi August 10 on orders of the Supreme Court.

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The protesters, led by local Congress, BSP and Lok Insaaf party leaders, were stopped by police with barricades, 100 meters away from the minister’s home where agitators raised slogans against him and BJP government for over five hours. The agitators attempted to cross the barricades and pushed the cops, but the large police deployment foiled their attempt.

branding the BJP government as anti-Dalit and anti-farmer, they demanded a reconstruction of the temple on the same land.

President, state SC Wing of Lok Insaaf Party, Jarnail Nangal, who was part of the delegation that met Union housing and urban development affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri in Delhi on August 13, said the government is providing an alternate site but the community wants the same land where the original temple stood.

Congress leader Joginder Singh Mann said the Congress will support the community and its protest till the land is allotted for reconstruction. The Union minister Som Parkash, however, accused the Opposition of politicising the matter and deliberately blaming the BJP. He said he had met the Hardeep Singh Puri and the Delhi governor in this regard, and the BJP government is making all requisite effort to coordinate with the Delhi government to re-allot the land to the community.

The Ravidasia community has announced it will stage a massive protest on August 31 outside union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal’s residence in Bathinda.