Uma Bharti interview: ‘Must have temples at Kashi, Mathura but shouldn’t look for Shivling at every mosque’

In an interview, former MP CM Uma Bharti says disputed Kashi & Mathura sites should be exempted from Places of Worship Act, also expresses interest in contesting Lok Sabha polls.

File photo of Uma Bhartin speaking to reporters | ANI

Bhopal: Temples should be built at the disputed sites in Kashi and Mathura, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti has said, while also endorsing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat’s advice “not to go looking for a shivling in every mosque in India”.

Bhagwat had made the remark in June 2022, when the Gyanvapi mosque dispute was gathering steam. When asked about it in an interview with ThePrint, Bharti said, “What he (Bhagwat) had said is correct. Most of the religious places barring a few exceptions have been constructed by demolishing temples. If we get into it, no one in this country, neither Hindus nor Muslims, will be able to live in peace.”

Bharti — one of the 32 people accused in a criminal conspiracy case over the demolition of the Babri Masjid before being acquitted by a special court in 2020 — has been invited to the consecration of the Ram temple on 22 January. Discussing the movement to construct the temple, she said it was not the “work of a single person”. “It’s a movement that went about for 500 years,”

The former Union minister, who had chosen to sit out the 2019 parliamentary elections, appears keen on contesting the polls this time. “I had myself decided that I wouldn’t be contesting the elections of 2019 but will contest in 2024. I had chosen to sit and watch the electoral race then,” she said, adding, “I’ve indicated my wishes, but now it’s time for party president J.P. Nadda to decide.”

On Kashi and Mathura mosques 

Both the Krishna Janmabhoomi-Shahi Idgah and Gyanvapi Mosque cases are currently sub-judice. But Bharti believes that both places should be exempted from the Places of Worship Act, 1991 — a law that seeks to maintain the “religious character” of holy structures as it was at India’s independence in 1947. 

Currently, only the Ayodhya site has been exempted under the law.

According to her, while there was no “direct evidence of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, which made excavation necessary”, the evidence for Kashi and Mathura “is on the wall”.  She was referring to claims that there are carvings of Hindu motifs on the walls of the mosques. 

“We should treat Kashi and Mathura as exceptions and beyond this, Hindus will not say anything. Let us settle this dispute today,” she told ThePrint, adding that “no one will be able to stop” temples from being built on these sites. 

“The two places hold great religious significance for the Hindus but the mosques there are not as sacred as Mecca and Medina, or even the Haji Malang Dargah or the Ajmer Sharif Dargah, for Muslims,” she said.

On MP assembly polls 

In response to a question on why the BJP picked Mohan Yadav to be the Madhya Pradesh chief minister over its CM of 16 years, Shivraj Chouhan, she said it was the party’s prerogative. As an example, Bharti cited her own case. In 2005, Bharti, who had been made the state’s chief minister in 2003 after the BJP won 173 of the state’s 230 seats, stepped down to make way for Chouhan.

 “I left the post without complaining and in peace. My only demand was that after me the CM should be chosen by the MLAs and not the person I had a rift with,” she said, without elaborating on who she was referring to. “But after Shivraj ji ran the government effectively, I was contented.”

The Chouhan government’s ‘Ladli Behna Yojana’ has often been cited as a game changer for a party that was facing massive anti-incumbency in the 2023 polls. But Bharti emphasised that it was a scheme funded by the state government and “not from someone’s pocket”. 

“The previous government started it and Mohan Yadav will ensure it continues. Meanwhile, Shivraj ji will always remain a respected leader of the party,” she said.

(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)