Farmers Movement Archive

Remember who built Ram mandir in Ayodhya, says Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath

AGRA: UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath said in Mathura on Wednesday that "people of the state should always remember which party made it possible for the Ram mandir to be built in Ayodhya". The CM said, "Before deciding about your present and future, think of who constructed the temple for Lord Ram in Ayodhya. You all should keep this in mind -- that no other political outfit, except the BJP, could have done this." He added that he had fulfilled his 2017 promise on the Ayodhya issue. In the Hindu pilgrimage centre to inaugurate a slew of welfare projects worth over Rs 200 crore, Yogi's statement on the Ram mandir was made in the town that is considered to be Krishna's birthplace even as a controversy is brewing amid fresh demands recently for a 'Krishna Janambhoomi temple' in Mathura. Senior leaders of the BJP have of late upped the ante on the issue of a Krishna temple in Mathura. On December 6, UP cabinet minister Chaudhary Laxmi Narayan Singh asked, rhetorically, that if a Krishna temple won't be built in Mathura, will it be made in Lahore or Rawalpindi. That had come a day after the BJP MP from Ballia Ravindra Kushwaha had said, "When the (Narendra) Modi government can repeal the farm laws keeping in mind protests by farmers, it can also withdraw the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 to pave way for construction of a grand temple at Krishna Janambhoomi in Mathura." Yogi's deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya had set the cat among the pigeons when he tweeted before any of these leaders that "construction of grand temples in Ayodhya and Kashi is underway and preparations are on for Mathura". Hindu right-wing group Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha has also been threatening to install Krishna's idol at the Shahi Idgah and do aarti at the mosque, permission for which hasn't been given by the administration that has imposed Section 144 in the city. Yogi targeted the Samajwadi Party and said while there is a government now that "has faith and respects devotees of Lord Ram, on the other there is a party which opened fire on them", a reference to the police firing on kar sevaks in Ayodhya in 1990 when SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav was the chief minister.

The Times of India

2021-12-09

Agra