NEW DELHI ( WNAM MONITORING): A local court in India has accepted a petition filed by a right-wing Hindu organization to survey a 13th-century famous Muslim saint shrine in Ajmer city in western Rajasthan state, which is visited by thousands of people each day.
The latest development comes days after a court-mandated survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal town in Uttar Pradesh state sparked protests and resulted in the deaths of five Muslims, including a minor, allegedly in police firing.
On a petition filed by Vishnu Gupta, leader of the right-wing Hindu nationalist organization Hindu Sena, which he founded in August 2011, the Ajmer civil court issued notices to a number of organizations, including the managing committee of the shrine of Muslim Saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
Gupta filed the petition in September, citing a book as evidence that the shrine was originally a Shiva deity temple and requesting that the ASI conduct a survey and declare it a temple for Hindu worship.
The court issued notices on Wednesday and set Dec. 20 as the next hearing date.
The state government has yet to respond to the latest development, which has sparked criticism from many in the South Asian country.
However, Indian Minister Giriraj Singh told reporters in New Delhi, “In Ajmer, a court ordered a survey. What’s the problem if a Hindu files a petition and the court orders a survey?”
Singh blamed the main opposition Congress party, claiming that if former Indian Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru “had stopped this campaign of building mosques by destroying temples, we wouldn’t be in a position to go to court.”
Syed Salman Chishty, a shrine representative, has asked the Indian Supreme Court and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene in the issue.
“Misusing courts and religious sentiments for divisive agendas defames revered Sufi shrines, erodes constitutional values, and threatens India’s harmony,” he wrote on X.
The Ajmer court’s acceptance of the case comes after a local court ordered a survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal town in northern Uttar Pradesh, in response to a petition claiming that a temple stood on the mosque’s site.
Last Sunday, when officials arrived in the town to conduct the survey, locals objected, resulting in clashes with police.
The clashes claimed the lives of at least five civilians and injured several police officers.
In the recent past, right-wing groups in India have filed back-to-back petitions in courts, claiming that UNESCO-protected monuments and Mughal-era mosques are temples.
A 17th-century Shahi Idgah Mosque in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura district is also facing a legal battle as a Hindu group is claiming that the mosque was built on the birthplace of Lord Krishna.
