Mohan Bhagwat Does Not Endorse New Claims On Mosques And Dargahs
VHP's Plan
To Hold Dutta Jayanti Celebrations Close To The Shrine Is Not In Line With RSS Policy
Main
Points:
1. Mohan Baghawat
had recently said RSS did not back new disputes.
2. VHP has made
this claim in view of Assembly elections.
3. Muslims and
Hindus have held Urs and Jayanti celebrations in the premises.
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By
New Age Islam Staff Writer
6 December
2022
On Toes: Security personnel stand
guard near Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi and the Shahi Mosque Idgah in Mathura a day
before the 30th anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya on
December 6, 1992.
File picture
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The VHP Chikkamagaluru
district has sparked communal tension in the district by seeking permission to
hold the Dutta Jayanti Celebrations close to the shrine of Sufi Baba Budan.
Till now, it has been holding the celebrations within the premises but this
year they have sought permission to hold it close to the Sufi shrine. The VHP
and RSS started the celebrations in the Dargah compound in 1998 after being
buoyed up by the demolition of Babri mosque in 1992. However, they held the
celebrations in one corner of the Dargah.
Political
compulsions are said to be behind the recent move of the VHP. This move is not
endorsed by the RSS as RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had recently said that after
Babri mosque demolition, the organisation had decided that it will not cause
any fresh claims on mosques and Dargahs and will seek resolution of disputes
through dialogue. The move by VHP will only heighten communal tension in the district
and in the country.
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30
Years After Babri Masjid Demolition, The Hunger Has Only Been Whetted
By
K.M. Rakesh
Bangalore |06.12.22
The 30th
anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid falls on Tuesday but the
darkest chapter in independent India is being marked not by contrition but by
signs of unsatiated appetite.
The Vishwa
Hindu Parishad has demanded that it be allowed to conduct Hindu rituals in the
16th-century Baba Budangiri Sufi shrine in Chikkamagaluru, Karnataka, as part
of the three-day Datta Jayanti celebrations starting Tuesday.
Until now,
the rituals associated with the event used to take place in a structure a short
distance from the shrine but within the compound.
The VHP
wants to move the rituals closer to the Sufi shrine.
In the
aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition, the cave shrine came to be known as
“Ayodhya of the South” because of the disputes and litigation swirling around
it.
The shrine
is eponymous with Baba Budan, a Sufi saint who is believed to have started the
coffee culture in India by bringing seeds from Yemen.
Chikkamagaluru
is one of the richest coffee-growing areas in the country. But the Sufi shrine
got pitchforked into a controversy in the 1990s when the Sangh parivar launched
a campaign on the lines of Ayodhya, staking exclusive claim to the shrine.
Some
Muslims treat the shrine as that of Baba Budan and Hindus as the Datta Peeta of
Sree Guru Dattatreya, whom believers consider an incarnation of Shiva, Vishnu
and Brahma.
The latest
demand comes close on the heels of Karnataka High Court last week allowing the
three-day Datta Jayanti celebrations to continue on the premises of the cave
shrine, located more than 300km from Bangalore.
Yogeshraj
Urs, Chikkamagaluru district VHP secretary, sought permission to conduct
rituals such as homa at the shrine in an application filed before the
management committee of Sri Guru Dattatreya Bababudan Swamy Dargah/ Peetha
during the upcoming Jayanti celebrations.
“We have
been doing these rituals at a shed outside the disputed area. But now we would
like to conduct them on the shrine premises,” he told reporters, adding that
the Hindu priests appointed recently by the state government would lead the
rituals.
The state
BJP government had on Sunday cleared the appointment of two Hindu priests
solely for the Datta Jayanti celebrations.
The
government had limited the role of the priests to the three-day celebrations,
citing a writ appeal pending before the high court against the quashing of the
order by the Congress government headed by P.C. Siddaramaiah appointing a
muzawar (Muslim cleric) for the shrine.
A
single-judge bench of the high court had in 2021 set aside the government order
that had been challenged by the Dattatreya Devastana Samvardhana Samithi.
Syed Ghouse
Mohiyuddin Shah Khadri, the hereditary administrator of the Sufi shrine,
subsequently filed a writ appeal before a division bench of the high court.
The case,
which came up for hearing on November 30, has been adjourned till January 12.
Khadri is
now in the process of filing a contempt case against the VHP, alleging that the
demand to conduct rituals inside the shrine was in violation of the high court
order to maintain status quo during the pendency of his writ appeal.
“We are filing
a contempt of court case since this demand (by VHP) is against the court order
seeking status quo,” Khadri told The Telegraph on Monday.
“They are
raising this new demand just to keep the issue alive ahead of the Assembly
elections,” he said.
The dispute
dates back to the post-Babri Masjid demolition years when Sangh Parivar
organisations launched a massive movement in Karnataka seeking rights to
conduct rituals at the cave shrine.
The VHP and
allied organisations then started the Datta Jayanti celebrations in 1998 while
the Muslims continued to hold the Uroos in March in commemoration of the death
anniversary of Baba Budan.
Source: 30
Years After Babri Masjid Demolition, The Hunger Has Only Been Whetted
URL: https://newageislam.com/interfaith-dialogue/mohan-bhagwat-mosques-dargahs/d/128574