300-year-old Shiva temple bulldozed in Rajasthan, tensions rise

Jaipur: A 300-year-old Lord Shiva temple in Alwar district’s Rajgarh town was demolished on Friday.

The video of the temple demolition is going viral on social media putting the Congress government of Rajasthan in the dock. However, the ruling party has washed its hands off the demolition claiming that the Rajgarh municipality is being ruled by the BJP and the action has been taken by the saffron party workers.

Meanwhile, the local administration said that the action to remove the encroachment was taken as per the master plan.

Bharatiya Janata Party state president Satish Poonia however questioned how can a 300-year-old temple be an encroachment? “The BJP is sending its team to the spot, which will give its report in three days,” he added.

Congress state president Govind Singh Dotasara told a press conference that the BJP is playing politics on the issue.

“In 2018, the BJP Mandal President wrote a letter to the district collector recommending the removal of this encroachment. As there is a BJP board in Rajgarh being headed by Satish Guharia, the resolution to remove this encroachment was passed in their board meeting. Thereafter, encroachment was removed. Temples are not tampered with in the Congress government, this has been the agenda of the BJP,” he added.

“Many temples were demolished during the BJP rule in Rajasthan under, during the tenure of former CM Vasundhara Raje. Recently, bulldozers were run in Delhi to erase buildings despite SC objections. Also many temples were brought down in Gujarat. It’s the BJP and RSS which is playing politics on these issues,” he added.

Veteran Congress leader Jitendra Singh said, “It is unfortunate that the encroachment drive was ordered by the BJP Board and Chairman of the Nagar Palika Rajgarh to make the Gaurav Path also sanctioned by the last government without taking the local people into consideration.”

BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya shared a video of the incident on Twitter and said “Shedding tears on Karauli and Jahangirpuri and hurting Hindus’ faith — this is what the secularism of Congress is all about.”

(IANS)