By Syed Khalique Ahmed
NEW DELHI—Varanasi’s Anjuman Masajid Intezamia Committee’s joint secretary Syed Mohammad Yasin has said that Namaz in the Gyanvapi mosque is being performed as usual even after a Varanasi court allowed the Hindu party to conduct Pooja in the southern basement of the mosque. The court order for Pooja came on Wednesday.
He said that the Fajr namaz on Thursday was also held in the mosque without any obstruction from the local administration or by any outsider.
He made these clarifications while talking to India Tomorrow because some social media users spread the false news stating that an idol was installed in the Gyanvapi mosque and Hindu Pooja had started after an order of the Varanasi district court. This resulted in lot of concern among Muslims all over the country.
Giving details about the basement or “tehkhana” below the Masjid, he said there were two basements of the mosque. One on Southern side whose entry gate opens on the Kashi Vishwanath temple side and another “tehkhana” on the northern side. Both the cellars are separated by a thick wall from the ground to the ceiling of the mosque.
While the Southern basement was under the possession of the local administration that was used for keeping bamboo logs and other wooden materials used for annual Hindu worship- Navan path- rituals. This basement was opened once a year only for taking out bamboos and wooden materials and then store them back into the cellar.
As for northern basement, he said there were two shops: one of bangles run by a Muslim vendor and the other was rented out to Hindu who operated a tea shop from there. They paid rent to the masjid management committee.
After the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, the then Deputy Inspector General(DIG) of Police, Varanasi range, Chaman Lal, advised the masjid management committee to get the two shops in the northern cellar vacated and keep them under their direct supervision. According to Mr. Yasin, the DIG expressed the apprehension that someone could misuse any of the two shopkeepers for creating an Ayodhya-like situation where the problem started after an idol was surreptitiously installed under the central dome of the Babri Masjid.
The masjid management committee acted on the advice of the DIG and got the two shops vacated. “The committee paid the two shopkeepers money and arranged alternate shops for getting the promises vacated,” Mr Yasin said.
“Since then the keys of the cellar are in possession of the masjid committee,” he informed.
As for barricading of the mosque premises with iron grills, Mr Yasin said it was done on the orders of the Supreme Court in 1993 after demolition of the Babri Masjid. According to him, the Supreme Court had ordered barricading on the petition of one Mr Mohammad Aslam alias Bhure who had sought status quo at the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi site in 1991. The barricading was ordered to ensure that no harm occurred to the Gyanvapi mosque as radical Hindutva organisations were also making their claims over this mosque as well.
It was on Bhure’s petition that then UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh was convicted of contempt of court in the Babri Masjid case on October 24, 1994. This conviction was in the context of Kalyan Singh government allowing construction activities around the Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhoomi site despite the status quo order of the Supreme Court on Mr. Bhure’s petition.
“It is (a) unhappy (situation) that a leader of a political party and chief minister has to be convicted for an offence of contempt of court. But it has to be done to uphold the majesty of law,” the apex court had said in its order.
Mr Yasin objected to the cutting of the Masjid barricades by the local administration to allow the Hindu party access to the southern basement. He said that since the barricading was done on the orders of the Supreme Court, it could be removed even partially on the orders of the apex court only. No other court can pass any order in this regard. He lamented that the local administration did not care about it.
He denied claims by some newspaper reports that Hindu Pooja was conducted in the Southern basement since the British period but was stopped by the Mulayam Singh Yadav government citing law and order situation. He said there is no evidence to this claim.
Mr Yasin said that the 1942 judgement of the Allahabad High court also upheld the Gyanvapi’s status as a mosque but the court’s now are not accepting it. The 1942 judgement also said that the Gyanvapi masjid and the plinth on which it stands is a waqf property.
He also said that Urs (death anniversary) function was annually held on the two graves adjoining the western walls of the mosque. But, the Urs was stopped by the organisers due to personal reasons during the British period.
However, two years ago, the descendants of the Urs organisers approached the Varanasi district court to allow them Urs of the two graves. Mr Yasin said while the court decided and allowed Pooja in the Southern basement of the mosque on applications of the Hindu, it has not taken note of the Muslim plaintiffs for Urs.
He said that several petitions have also been filed from the Hindu side to stop performance of Namaz in the mosque. Though the Varanasi court did not ban Namaz, it restricted the number of Namazis to 20 only based on Hindu petitioners. But the Supreme Court in its order on May 17, 2022 ordered continuation of Namaz and removed restrictions on the number of persons to offer Namaz in the mosque.
