E-Paper
Gyanvapi: Hindu side claims ‘Shivling’ found
The court’s orders came hours after Hindu petitioners claimed that surveyors recovered a “Shivling” from the bottom of a tank while conducting a court-ordered survey inside the Gyanvapi Masjid compound.
A local court on Monday ordered a section of the Gyanvapi Masjid complex sealed after lawyers representing Hindu petitioners claimed a “Shivling” was recovered during a controversial survey, marking a potential tipping point in the decades-old religious dispute.
The court’s orders came hours after Hindu petitioners claimed that surveyors recovered a “Shivling” from the bottom of a tank while conducting a court-ordered survey inside the Gyanvapi Masjid compound. Muslim petitioners, however, said that the object recovered was a fountain, and that the court passed its order without listening to their submissions. The diameter of the “Shivling” is about 12 feet.
“The petitioners’ plea said that on May 16, a Shivling was found inside the masjid complex. This is a very important piece of evidence… district magistrate, Varanasi is ordered to immediately seal the spot from where the Shivling was found and ban the entry of any person,” said the court’s order in Hindi.
The spot was sealed in the evening, said officials.
In its order, the court said the district magistrate, the Varanasi police commissioner and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) commandant will be responsible for the security of the sealed area. Director general of police DS Chauhan, UP chief secretary Durga Shankar Mishrawill be responsible for supervision of the steps taken by the local administration for the security of the sealed place, the court said.
“The petitioners said the Shivling was found during the survey and hence, it is necessary to preserve it,” said the order.
The Muslim petitioners said they were not heard before the order was passed and condemned Hindu parties for making disclosures before the survey’s results were officially declared.
“We strictly followed the order by the court and fully cooperated in the survey. I am deeply pained that the people associated with petitioners are making claims which suit them and leaking details of proceedings of the survey,” said SM Yasin, joint secretary of the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee (AIMC), which manages the Gyanvapi Masjid.
District magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said the survey was completed peacefully but refused to confirm if a ‘Shivling’ was found from the premises. “The court commissioner said that the report will be presented in the court on May 17, and till then no one should disclose what has been found inside the mosque complex. However, if anyone is disclosing it on his own, then its authenticity cannot be proved. Only the court is the custodian of this information. If someone disclosed the information, then the court commission has nothing to do with it,” he said.
The survey – which was ordered by the court last month on a petition by five Hindu women who wanted the right to pray to deities installed within the mosque complex – was completed on Monday. Its results will be presented in the court in a hearing on Tuesday, unless the Supreme Court – which is set to hear a plea by the Muslim petitioners against the survey exercise – suspends the process.
Many experts said the court’s orders marked an erosion of the mandate of the 1991 Places of Worship Act, which clamped status quo on the character of places of worship as existing on August 15, 1947. Only the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya was kept out of the purview of the law, in order to forestall attempts to alter the religious nature of a place of worship and people taking the law into their own hands to remedy “historical wrongs”.
The Hindu petitioners asked the court to ban the entry of any person, permit only 20 Muslims to continue offering prayers from the spot and bar anyone from using the pond – a circular structure with a fountain in the middle and 30 taps affixed for Muslims to perform a ceremonial cleanse before offering namaz inside the mosque.
“Baba has been found…the day we were all waiting for is here,” said Hindu petitioner Sohan Lal Arya shortly after the survey was completed on Monday morning, claiming that the “Shivling” was found after the pond was dredged. The petition was filed in the civil court within the hour.
Rais Ahmad Ansari, who represents the AIMC, said the Hindu petitioners made a misleading claim. “There is no Shivling in the wuzukhana (ceremonial ablution area, or the pond). There is only a fountain…the structure, which the petitioners are claiming to be Shivling, is a fountain. It is a misleading claim,” he said.
“We are not satisfied with the order passed on the petition by an advocate of the plaintiffs on Monday. We will challenge it soon,” he added.
The court’s order and the claimed discovery of the “Shivling” marks a crucial turn in the dispute over the Kashi Vishwanath Temple-Gyanvapi Masjid complex, which has simmered on for decades with some Hindu groups saying the Hindu temple was partially razed to build the 17th-century mosque and Muslims refuting this charge.
In the summer of 2021, five women sought worshipping rights at the Maa Shringar Gauri Sthal, a shrine for Hindu goddess Parvati located behind the western wall of the mosque complex. They argued that a number of Hindu deities were installed within the mosque complex and therefore Hindu devotees had a right to access them for worship. On April 26, a local Varanasi court ordered a survey of the mosque complex but when the survey began on May 6, it quickly ran into angry protests from Muslim groups that objected to the surveyors entering the mosque premises. The Varanasi court and later the Supreme Court, however, refused to stop the exercise, marking a victory for the Hindu petitioners.
The survey exercise, done by advocate commissioner Ajai Kumar Mishra, special advocate commissioner Vishal Singh and assistant advocate Ajai Pratap Singhin the presence of all plaintiffs and respondents, took up 14 hours.
Special advocate commissioner Vishal Singh said, “A detailed report of the survey proceedings is being prepared. We are trying to submit it to the Court on May 17.” The survey work on Monday began around 8am and all the parties cooperated in the survey, added Singh.
The development also triggered political reactions. “The truth is out now and now whatever the court orders will be followed by all. The Muslim side or other opposition leaders engaged in appeasement must desist from making remarks,” said deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi said Muslims were not ready to lose another mosque after the Babri Masjid, referring to the demolition of the 16th century structure by a mob in 1992. “When I was 19-20 years old, the Babri Masjid was snatched from us, and inshallah, we will not allow this to happen again,” he said.
