BJP MPs welcome HC order allowing ASI survey at Gyanvapi mosque

NEW DELHI: BJP leaders on Thursday welcomed the Allahabad High Court decision allowing the ASI survey at the Gyanvapi mosque in Uttar Pradesh, saying that the "truth" about the temple at the site will now come out.

The high court dismissed a petition filed by the Gyanvapi committee challenging a district court order directing the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to conduct a survey to determine if the mosque located next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple is built upon a temple.

It said the district court order is just and proper, and no interference from this court is warranted.

Reacting to the verdict, BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur said the decision of the high court is according to the Constitution.

"It is a good verdict. For us Indians, it is one that gives hope. Truth always comes out, it takes time but the truth comes out. Gyanvapi, the manner in which a structure was erected during the Mughal era by destroying the temple we can't call it a mosque. It is a temple and will remain so," she told reporters outside Parliament.

"There is just the need for the temple to appear. When the survey is done it would be clear our symbols are there the temple is there," Thakur said.

BJP MP Mahant Balaknath also hailed the verdict, saying it was based on facts. "Some people who used lies to hide the facts for a long time, now the truth will come out," he said.

Echoing similar views, BJP's Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh, Harnath Singh Yadav, also welcomed the court's decision.

"The Muslim community should accept this verdict. Now through this survey everything will become clear .'doodh ka doodh aur paani ka paani ho jayega'. All kinds of illusions will be over," he told reporters outside Parliament.

Speaking on the issue, BSP MP from Amroha Danish Ali said the Places of Worship Act, 1991, should be implemented in toto.

"Otherwise this will keep happening, people will look for a temple in a mosque and someone will look for a monastery in a temple. One can keep digging every day. Some political parties in order to divert attention from real issues of the people will keep taking political advantage," he said.

Samajwadi Party MP from Moradabad ST Hasan said, "We will abide by the court verdict. We expect the ASI to carry out an honest survey like it had done in Babri masjid where it had given a report that there were no signs of a temple there. What decisions come, only time will tell," Hasan said.

"But today we need to foster communal harmony and increase brotherhood between the two large populations of the country," he said.

Hasan argued that prayers are going on in that mosque for 350 years, and therefore, if not a mosque what else would it would be called.

"Are Allah and Ishwar not the same thing? We are dividing that also," he said appealing for promoting communal harmony.

The Varanasi district court had on July 21 directed the ASI to conduct a "detailed scientific survey" - including excavations, wherever necessary -- to determine if the Gyanvapi mosque is built upon a temple.

The Anjuman Intezamia Masjid committee, which manages the mosque, had moved the high court on July 25, a day after the Supreme Court halted the ASI survey till 5 pm on July 26, allowing time for the committee to appeal against the lower court's order.

Allahabad High Court Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker had reserved the order on the mosque committee's petition on July 27 after hearing arguments from both sides.