BJP’s MP raises Krishna Janmabhoomi issue in RS
Describing the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991 as “arbitrary, illegal and unconstitutional,” which is “cruel” to the Indic religions (Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist), BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Harnath Singh Yadav on Thursday demanded that the law, which prohibits conversion of any place of worship and provides for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947, to be scrapped. Amidst growing demand by some Hindu organisations to resolve the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi land dispute issue of Mathura, the
BJP MP raised the issue during the Zero Hour in the Upper House of Parliament. Just days back, Uttar Pradesh’s deuty chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya had pitched for a grand temple in Mathura, which was seen by many as an attempt to woo Hindutva votes ahead of crucial assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
Mr Yadav said the law gives “legal sanctity” to the “forceful occupation of the Krishna Janmabhoomi and other religious places by foreign invaders.”
While the Act makes an exception to the legal case around the Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya, all legal disputes in courts over any other religious places are considered closed by the 1991 Act, said the MP.
“This provision not just violates the constitutional provision of the right of equity but also secularism, which is part of the constitutional preamble... It is strange that this law provides that no citizen can go against it to the courts. Nor can this law be challenged,”said the