India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI—Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) has appealed to the Government of India to uphold the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 to protect the Gyanvapi Masjid in Varanasi.
JIH Vice-President Malik Mohtasim Khan, in a statement, said on Friday that JIH and the Muslim community were extremely concerned about the unfolding of events in the case of the Gyanvapi Masjid in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
“We fear that there may be a repetition of what happened to Babri Masjid in 1992,” Mr Khan said.
He said that the decision of the Allahabad High Court to reject the application by the Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee challenging the Varanasi District Judge’s order on July 21, might lead to unforeseen circumstances, like damaging the Masjid premises and some of its internal structures.
“The Advocate General representing the State of Uttar Pradesh’s defence of the Varanasi Court’s order that it was only meant to ascertain the truth and should not create any dispute between the plaintiff and the defendant cannot be taken seriously. His assurance that there would not be any law and order issues regardless of the court’s directions, has to be taken with a pinch of salt given the track record and political positioning of the Uttar Pradesh government regarding issues concerning the welfare of its Muslim population,” Mr Khan pointed out.
The JIH leader further said, “Jamaat-e-Islami Hind is of the considered view that courts should not entertain petitions about demands for a survey of Gyanvapi and other mosques when there is a clear-cut law in the statute viz. the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which prohibits altering the character of religious places.”
He demanded that the Union Home Ministry must urgently come out with a statement and uphold the Places of Worship Act 1991. The Act provides that a mosque, temple, church, or any place of public worship in existence on August 15, 1947, will retain the same religious character that it had on that day – irrespective of its history – and cannot be changed by the courts or the government.
