Weeks after the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) completed scientific survey of the 13 century Bhojshala temple-Kamal Maula Mosque in Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh to resolve the row over the ownership of the site, another ancient monument in the state has landed in similar controversy. Peeved at the denial of the entry into the the ASI-protected Beejamandal mosque, closed since 1965, in district headquarters of Vidisha on the occasion of ‘Nag Panchami’ which fell on Friday, the local BJP MLA Mukesh Tondon has threatened to move the court seeking scientific survey of the monument, claiming it a Hindu temple. “The monument was originally a Hindu temple.
I will move the court seeking scientific survey of the monument to set the record straight”, Mr Tondon said on Saturday. Mr Tondon said that inscriptions in some pillars of the monument clearly suggest that it was a temple and the Hindus have been worshiping in it for the last 32 years. The row erupted when the Vidisha district collector Buddhesh Kumar Vaidya turned down the plea by a group of Hindus to open the monument to enable them to worship in the temple on the occasion of ‘Nag Panchami’.
His denial followed a clarification by the ASI that the monument is not a temple, but a mosque, as per a 1951 gazette notification. A local Muslim leader Parvez Ahmed however contested the claims by the Hindus that it was a temple and said that the mosque was built in the site by the government and his community members.