Explained: Row Over Hyderabad¡¯s Historic Charminar And Bhagyalakshmi Temple

The 16th-century monument Charminar and the nearby Bhagyalakshmi temple in Hyderabad are at the centre of a new row, following the Qutub Minar in Delhi and the Gyanvapi mosque in Uttar Pradesh. The Bhagyalakshmi temple is dedicated to Goddess Lakshmi and one of the southeast minars of the monument forms its back wall.

How did it all begin?

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It all started when Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee secretary Rashed Khan started a petition drive to have the mosque inside Charminar reopened for namaz. The mosque is located on the top floor of the monument. Khan said that prayers have previously been held at the Charminar, which is protected by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI). Muslims, on the other hand, were forbidden from performing namaz at the spot two decades ago.

He urged the ASI and the Ministry of Tourism and Culture to allow Muslims to pray at Charminar. ¡°When we spoke to the Ministry of Culture, Kishan Reddy, said there will be a law and order problem. I will take all the signatures and go to the secular CM of Telangana (K Chandrasekhar Rao). If our requests are not addressed, we will do a sit-in protest at the Pragati Bhavan. Wrong promises are being made across the country on mosques,¡± said Khan, as cited by ANI.

AFP

According to the Congress Leader, the Bhagya Lakshmi temple is an illegal structure, as indicated by ASI in one of the reports. Since prayers are permitted in the 'illegal' temple, he believes the authorities should permit Muslims to pray in the mosque, which has existed since Mohammed Quli Qutb Shah built Charminar in 1591.

The party's leader, on the other hand, did not find support within the party. The demand for prayers at the Charminar mosque is not backed by the Congress, according to Hanumanth Rao, a member of the same party.

What was BJP¡¯s reaction to this?

The demand of a Congress representative enraged the BJP, which claimed there was a plot to damage the temple. Some BJP officials have even called for Khan's arrest for attempting to stir up unrest. A member of Parliament, Bandi Sanjay, has warned against touching the temple. "Why the demand for Namaz at Charminar now? Just because we started offering prayers at Bhagya Lakshmi temple, you are making this demand," said Sanjay, who last year launched his padayatra after offering prayers at the temple.

TOI

Ram Chander Rao, a former MLC for the BJP, claimed that the Congress was attempting to "create communal tension in Hyderabad," as the party had lost ground in the city. ¡°They are trying to gain ground by raking up communal issues which are concerned with the state government and not at all concerned with the Central government. There is a mosque which is a heritage structure which is closed and there is a temple where people have been worshipping for several years,¡± Rao said, as cited by Indian Express.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited the temple last month and during the 2020 civic elections in Telangana. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath too visited the temple while campaigning in Hyderabad for the civic polls around the same time.

ASI on Charminar and the temple

When the ASI took over the management of Charminar in 1951, no prayers were said there, according to ASI officials. The mosque was open to the public at the time, but it was closed to conserve the monument years later.

AFP

Prayers are permitted at a protected site only if it was a functional place of worship at the time the body gained control, according to the ASI regulation. The guidelines forbid worship at "non-living locations" when there has been no continuity of worship after the site was designated as an ASI-protected location.

A guard pillar was installed to defend the Charminar from vehicles, and it was painted saffron sometime in the 1960s. People began performing aarti there at that time. According to a report in The Indian Express, after a state road transport bus damaged the guard pillar, a little bamboo building was created overnight and the goddess's idol was placed.

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