BJP leader Subramanian Swamy wants Kashi temple 'reconstructed'

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has again called for the reconstruction of the Gyanvapi Kashi Vishwanath temple at its original site.

“I, after having successfully intervened in the Ayodhya Ram Temple case in the Supreme Court, now have resolved to take up the Gyanvapi Kashi Vishwanath Temple re-construction case after recovering the original Linga thrown into a temple near the site,” he said in an article that appeared in the Sunday Guardian. The government “has the constitutional mandate to acquire the entire Gyanvapi site under Article 300A”, he said.

The Rajya Sabha member of Parliament then took to Twitter to again point out that a “committee of prominent sadhus has been formed with… myself as chairman to liberate the site after recovering the Jyotirling removed by Aurangzeb”.

After the Supreme Court verdict in the Ayodhya case, right-wing organisations have been looking to drum up support for the demand to “liberate” the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi and the Sri Krishna temple in Mathura.

Mughal ruler Aurangazeb had destroyed the original Gyanvapi temple and built a mosque on the site. The Kashi Vishwanath temple was later built at a site adjacent to the Gyanvapi mosque. In Mathura, the Shahi Idgah is close to the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple complex.

Many Hindu organisations formed the ‘Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi Nirman Nyas’ a few days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed the ‘bhoomi pooja’ for the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, to “reclaim” the Mathura temple. The Nyas is headed by Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, who is also the head of the Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas, the trust formed to oversee the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya.

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Swamy has been talking about the Kashi temple reconstruction since early this year. In March, he said the “liberation and restoration of the Kashi Vishwanath Jyotirling Mandir is a fundamental part of Hindu Renaissance.” Later, in May, he said he was waiting for the lockdown to end to start his campaign for the Kashi temple.