Ajmer Dargah row: Temple claim in petition triggers fierce debate

Jaipur, Nov 29: A plea which claims that the Ajmer Sharif Dargah was built over a Shiva temple has sparked a fierce debate among the political and Muslim leaders in Rajasthan.

The petition has been admitted by a court in Ajmer, which issued notices to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the Ajmer Dargah Committee and the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs on the matter.

Rajasthan Education Minister Madan Dilawar on Friday said Mughal emperors such as Babar and Aurangzeb demolished most of the temples during their rule and built mosques.

“If the court orders excavation and if remains are found after the excavation, then a decision (based on teh remains) will come,” Dilawar told reporters in Kota.

The court in Ajmer, known the world over for the dargah visited by thousands of devotees cutting across religious lines every day, issued the notices on Wednesday.

Congress MLA Rafeek Khan said this was a blow to the constitutional right of freedom of religion and equality. “The shrine was built in 12th century and it is being challenged in 2024. This is an attempt to disturb communal harmony and is against the brotherhood between communities,” he said.

Accusing the Narendra Modi government of sowing division, Khan said, “Instead of looking forward to giving a bright future to the youths and the coming generation, the government is pushing them backward and misleading them because they have nothing to present as its achievement.”

Syed Sarwar Chishti, Secretary of Anjuman Syed Zadgan -- the body of Khadims in Ajmer Dargah --questioned the claims of the petitioner Vishnu Gupta who has referred to Har Bilas Sarda’s book ‘Ajmer-Historical and Descriptive’ in the plea.

Chisti said in the petition, Gupta has mentioned that a Brahmin couple used to worship in the Mahadev temple where the dargah was built but no other books on the history of the shrine make such claims.

Ajmer Dargah Deewan Zainul Abedin Khan, the spiritual head of the shrine, referring to some books said that the grave of the Sufi saint was on ‘kaccha’ land and no ‘pucca’ construction was there for 150 years.

In such a situation, how does the claim of a temple stand.

Both Chisti and Khan held press conferences separately in Ajmer. They said that such petitions have the potential to greatly damage social harmony and were against the interest of the country.

“From the time of Jawahar Lal Nehru to Narendra Modi, a ‘chadar’ comes in the name of the prime minister of India for the dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti during the annual urs,” Chisti said.

“Many books have been written on the history of the dargah. Viceroy Lord Curzon used to say that a tomb is ruling India. This is a place of reverence for everyone,” he said.

Chisti said that the the Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti dargah is a symbol of communal harmony, unity in diversity and secularism. “We do not want the communal harmony of the country to be disturbed,” he said.

Abedin Ali Khan said that the petitioner has referred to Har Bilas Sarda’s book written in 1910.

“The whole controversy is from the wordings of the book. First of all, Sarda was not a historian...he was an educated person. He wrote based on what he had heard in 1910,” Abedin Khan said.

“There are other books of history which contain the details of the history of the dargah,” he said.

Abedin Khan added that being a descendant of the Sufi saint, he was not made a party in the case. He said the petition was filed for cheap publicity.

“Anyone can go to the court, but it can only be decided based on facts and evidence. I have a panel of lawyers and after consultation with the lawyers, I will decide what to do,” he said.