Madhya Pradesh: Ban on cellphone at Mahakal sparks Congress-BJP spat
BHOPAL: Almost a week before Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra enters Madhya Pradesh, which will pass through Ujjain’s Mahakal temple, a political controversy has erupted in the state. A few days ago, the Mahakal temple administration banned the use of mobile phones inside the sanctum to prevent the shooting of visuals, a decision that the opposition Congress has linked to Rahul’s yatra in which he is scheduled to offer prayers inside the temple in the first week of December.
“The BJP government is so scared with our leader’s visit to the Mahakal temple that it has pressured the temple management to take this decision. Six days back, I went to the same temple and offered prayers, but there was no such ban. The reason for the sudden decision is clear: stop the publicity of our leader offering prayers at the temple,” said former state law minister and Congress MLA PC Sharma.
Echoing similar views, another former state minister and senior Congress MLA Sajjan Singh Verma (considered close to state party chief Kamal Nath) said, “The temple decision exposes the real mindset of the BJP. However, the new rule will neither have any effect on Rahul Gandhi nor the Congress.” The ruling BJP and the temple management denied any political links to the temple decision.
“The government has not taken this decision. The ban has been imposed by the administrative committee of the temple. It’s wrong to derive political meaning from it,” said the state’s Home Minister Narottam Mishra. BJP MP from Ujjain Anil Firoziya said the ban on mobile phones was proposed on November 12 to stop videography of the sanctum. There have been instances where videos filmed by youngsters were mixed with Bollywood songs before being posted on social media platforms, triggering controversy. “It’s to prevent such incidents that the ban has been imposed on cell-phones inside the garbhagriha.”
The Ujjain district collector Ashish Singh, who is the ex-officio head of the temple’s management committee says a slew of decisions that were taken recently by the committee in consultation with priests, included banning cell-phones inside the garbhgriha, as many devotees have complained of inconvenience. During the course of around fortnight-long Yatra in MP’s Malwa-Nimar region (covering six districts and at least 25 assembly constituencies of south-west and west MP) Rahul will offer prayers at Jyotirlingas, first at Omkareshwar temple in Khandwa district this month and later at Mahakal in Ujjain in the first week of December, around the time when neighbouring Gujarat will be voting in two phases.
Meanwhile, the visuals of state Congress chief Kamal Nath cutting a temple-shaped multi-layered cake bearing images of Lord Hanuman and saffron flag, have prompted the BJP to target Nath and Congress for “hurting Hindu religious sentiments”. The video went viral on Wednesday, in which Nath was seen cutting the cake in his assembly constituency Chhindwara, three days ahead of his 76th birthday which falls on Friday. While CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan assailed Nath and Congress, dubbing them Bagula Bhagat (false devotees), the state’s Home Minister Narottam Mishra accused Nath of being inspired by invaders Muhammad Ghori and Mahmud Ghaznavi.
BICKERING ON MOBILE BAN
- Congress’ Bharat Jodo Yatra will pass through Ujjain’s Mahakal temple in its Madhya Pradesh leg in the first week of December
- The temple administration has banned the use of mobile phones inside the sanctum
- Congress has linked the ban on cell phones to Rahul Gandhi’s proposed prayers inside the temple
- The ruling BJP and the temple management denied any political links to the temple decision