Former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti, said that despite a Supreme Court ruling that the status quo of the religious places should be maintained as it existed in 1947, his judgement has paved the way for surveys of these sites potentially leading to increased tension between Hindus and Muslims. “Thanks to a former Chief Justice of India a Pandora’s box has been opened, sparking a contentious debate about minority religious places…The recent violence in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh is the direct result of this judgment,” said Mufti. The People’s Democratic Party chief said that first mosques and now muslim shrines like Ajmer Sharif are being targeted. “This can result in further bloodshed. The question remains – who will take responsibility for perpetuating this communal violence reminiscent of the partition days?” she asked.
The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, maintains that barring Ayodhya, status quo as on August 15, 1947, will have to be maintained at religious structures across the country. However in 2023, the then CJI D Y Chandrachud had argued that the PW Act 1991 does not debar ascertainment of the religious character of a place of worship and thus allowed a survey at Gyanvapi Mosque, in Varanasi.
In this context, a plea at the local court in Ajmer was filed in September, seeking directions to start worship at the Ajmer Shrine, which the plea claimed was Shiva temple. On November 27, the court issued notices to the dargah committee, the Ministry of Minority Affairs and the Archaeological Survey of India concerning the shrine visited by devotees across the religious and political spectrum.
The People’s Conference chief and legislator from Handwara in northern Kashmir Sajad Lone, said that the country’s significant section of population, even though educated, seem to be all invested in the obsession to invent hidden temples.
“Those educated ones who should have been at the forefront of heralding the Indian tech revolution are busy mythologizing…I was recently in Dubai and had the chance to see magnificence in the form of architecture of the temples that have been built here. What an oasis of tolerance and mutual respect Dubai has turned out to be,” said Lone in a long social media post.Lone rued that India has regressed and the electoral victories have come at a cost, which have left this country soulless. “This country once defined by its soulfulness is tragically now soulless and in search of a soul…And Ajmer of all the places symbolises spiritualism. It is the destination of all faiths, where all converge irrespective of religion, caste, creed. A unique belief and trust in the spiritual deliverance of that great seat of spirituality,” said Lone.The PC chief who has served as a minister in the PDP-BJP government in J&K said that in the fight between moderate ideology and extremism, moderates will never surrender. “We fought our own battles in Kashmir. Even within the separatist camp there was a clear demarcation between moderates and extremists. And thousands of lives were lost in the battle between moderates and extremists. Yet the moderates did not surrender. And moderates, inshallah will never surrender,” he said. The legislator from Handwara said that the ideology of moderation, tolerance and mutual respect will prevail.
