LUCKNOW: Days ahead of the Allahabad High Court’s order on a scientific probe into the Gyanvapi mosque premises in Varanasi, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ruffled many feathers by saying the Muslim community should acknowledge the mosque as a ‘historical mistake’ and come forward to thrash out a solution.
During a podcast interview with a news agency, the CM, in his first reaction to the controversy, claimed that calling Gyanvapi a mosque was problematic and that it should just be called Gyanvapi.
“If we call it a mosque, there will be a dispute... What is a trident doing inside a mosque? How is the Jyotirlinga present there? What are the images of deities doing there? We did not put them there. The walls of the structure are screaming, to tell the truth,” Adityanath said in reply to a query about what should be done to resolve the dispute.
“I think the Muslim society should come forward with a proposal that a historic mistake has happened and that they want a solution,” he added.
The Allahabad High Court is about to deliver its verdict on a plea of the Anjuman Intezamia Masajid, the mosque management committee, challenging the Varanasi district court order of July 21 directing the ASI to conduct a survey to determine if the mosque was built upon a pre-existing temple. All India Muslim Personal Law Board’s Mohd Suleman said the CM’s views hurt him.