Just weeks after a Varanasi court allowed Hindu prayers before idols in the southern cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Siddiqullah Chowdhury warned Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath that if “he comes to Bengal, we will surround him”.
He even asked the Hindu worshippers to “vacate the Gyanvapi mosque immediately”. While attending a Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind rally in Kolkata demanding a ban on the ‘puja’ in the mosque, Chowdhury also questioned if the Chief Minister had “any sense” to allow such a move, adding that “if he sits somewhere (while in Bengal), he will not be allowed to go out”.
“These people (Hindu worshippers) have forcefully started worshipping there. Vacate the Gyanvapi mosque immediately,” he said.
The TMC leader further said that “we do not go to any temple to pray”.
“So why are they coming to our mosques? A mosque is a mosque. If someone wants to convert the mosque into a temple, then we will not sit quiet. This will not happen. “That (Gyanvapi) mosque has been there for more than 800 years. How will they demolish it?” he queried.
Chowdhury’s warning came two days after the Varanasi district court fixed February 15 as the date for hearing the Gyanvapi Masjid committee’s plea against the Varanasi district court’s January 31 order ruling that a priest can perform prayers before the idols in the southern cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque.
According to the petition, priest Somnath Vyas used to perform prayers there till 1993 when the cellar was closed by the authorities. Shailendra Kumar Pathak, maternal grandson of Somnath Vyas, had sought the right to worship the deities there.