Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Swami Prasad Maurya has sparked a row claiming that the Badrinath Temple, a key pilgrimage site for Hindus in Uttarakhand, was once a “Buddhist mutt”, with the Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other politicians slamming his comment.
Maurya made the statement to several media channels amid the ongoing legal tussle over the Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi, and months after he said that some chaupayis (verses) of the epic poem Ramcharitmanas were “anti-backward (caste) and anti-women”.
The Gyanvapi Mosque dispute was raised by the BJP, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the RSS during the campaign for the construction of a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. It is alleged that a Hindu temple was partially razed to build the 17th-Century mosque.
Speaking to mediapersons Thursday on the issue of a scientific survey on the premises of the Gyanvapi complex, Maurya — a former five-time MLA and former UP cabinet minister who was with the BJP till 2021 — demanded that there should be an investigation into the status of all Hindu religious sites, too, because most such sites were formerly Buddhist “mutts”.
“If there is a talk about a survey by the Archaeological Survey of India, then why target only Gyanvapi masjid? There should be an investigation into the status of all Hindu pilgrimage (sites) because I know that most of them once used to be Buddhist mutts. Even Badrinath Dham until the 8th Century was a Buddhist mutt. They (pilgrimage sites) were set up after demolishing the mutts and hence, if old skeletons are to be dug out, there will be no end to the controversy,” he said.
“This is why there should be status quo on the status of (religious sites) in the country, to ensure brotherhood and harmony,” added Maurya.
Speaking to ThePrint Friday on the same subject, Maurya alleged that the BJP “has always resorted to jhooth ki kheti (spreading of lies)” and “politics of polarisation by raising masjid-mandir issues before elections”.
“The BJP has always resorted to jhooth ki kheti and spreading of poison to harm Hindu-Muslim unity. It is the politics of polarisation before every election. The masjid-mandir issue is being raised when the Constitution talks about equal respect to all religions, sects and communities in India,” he said.
“Hence, I said that status quo on religious sites as declared on 15 August, 1947, should be accepted to ensure communal harmony in the nation. When our tradition talks about vasudhaiva kutumbakam (the world is one family), why this hatred towards those staying in India?” he questioned.
When asked to enumerate the names of Hindu temples that he believed were established by demolishing Buddhist monasteries, Maurya said he didn’t want to amplify the controversy but could cite dozens of such examples if required.
Maurya’s comment on Badrinath Temple drew criticism not only from the BJP in Uttar Pradesh but also the current and former chief ministers of Uttarakhand.
UP BJP spokesperson Awanish Tyagi told ThePrint that the SP leader had been discarded by the public and was desperate.
“Maurya has no work apart from dividing the public. He has made divisive statements on the Ramcharitmanas in the past and now this. His job is to create fissures and disturbance in society. The public has discarded him and he is desperate,” he said.
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‘Unfortunate’
Another BJP spokesperson, Manish Shukla, targeted the politics of the Samajwadi Party.
“In the past too, on the signal of (SP chief) Akhilesh Yadav, Maurya and (party leaders) S.T. Hasan and Shafiqur Rahman Barq would make such statements. Akhilesh stopped the 84-km procession in Ayodhya (an initiative of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad) during his regime and stopped giving funds for the Ramayana mela there that was started by SP ideologue Ram Manohar Lohia,” he said.
Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami and former CM Tirath Singh Rawat also slammed the SP leader.
Speaking to ANI Thursday, Dhami said the Badrinath Temple and pilgrimage site were a centre of faith and devotion for people from across the world and Maurya’s statement was “unfortunate”.
“The kind of (Opposition) alliance he is part of, the comment is on expected lines because they believe in polarising everything,” he said.
In a tweet later Thursday, Dhami alleged that Maurya’s statement reflected the “anti-national and anti-religious thinking of the Congress and its supporters”.
“It also reflects that their ideology is influenced by that of (banned) SIMI (Students’ Islamic Movement of India) and PFI (Popular Front of India),” he wrote in Hindi.
करोड़ों श्रद्धालुओं की आस्था के केंद्र भू बैकुंठ श्री बदरीनाथ धाम पर समाजवादी पार्टी के नेता द्वारा की गई टिप्पणी दुर्भाग्यपूर्ण है।
"महाठगबंधन" के एक सदस्य के रूप में समाजवादी पार्टी के एक नेता द्वारा दिया गया यह बयान कांग्रेस और उसके सहयोगियों की देश व धर्म विरोधी सोच को…
— Pushkar Singh Dhami (@pushkardhami) July 27, 2023
Rawat told the media Friday that Maurya’s comments were disrespectful to Hindus. Emphasising that the Badrinath site had been a centre of devotion for years, he said that good sense should prevail over Maurya.
Maurya, however, took to Twitter Friday to question those “remembering faith now” and wondered if the faith of others was important as well.
“Akhir mirchi lagi na, ab aastha yaad aa rahi hai. (So now, people are upset, now they are remembering faith!) Is the faith of others not faith,” he wrote.
आखिर मिर्ची लगी न, अब आस्था याद आ रही है। क्या औरों की आस्था, आस्था नहीं है? इसलिए तो हमने कहा था किसी की आस्था पर चोट न पहुँचे इसलिए 15 अगस्त 1947 के दिन जिस भी धार्मिक स्थल की जो स्थिति थी, उसे यथास्थिति मानकर किसी भी विवाद से बचा जा सकता है। अन्यथा ऐतिहासिक सच स्वीकार करने के…
— Swami Prasad Maurya (@SwamiPMaurya) July 28, 2023
“This is why I had said that to ensure that no one’s faith is hurt, there should be a status quo on the status of all religious sites as on 15 August, 1947, which can help avoid any controversy. Otherwise, one should be ready to accept historical truths. Badrinath was a Buddhist mutt till the eighth century and was converted into a Hindu pilgrimage site and this is the only truth,” he added.
Dedicated to the god Vishnu, the Badrinath Temple in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district is one of a group of four pilgrimage sites that are central to the bhakti tradition in Hinduism.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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