The fresh incident of the alleged demolition of two mosques in the state secretariat brought home yet another spell of outrage against the KCR Government from the Muslim community and the opposition parties as well.
The incident created another political storm in the state with opposition parties yet again started firing salvos against the TRS Government terming the demolition of religious structures completely uncalled for and misadventures attempt at a time when the country has languished in several crises following the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic.
Flaying the government moves to reconstruct the state secretariat by pulling down the old one along with religious structures, Senior Congress Leader and contested MLA from Karvan constituency Osman Al-Hajri said, “Frequent incidents of the demolition of religious structures especially the mosques in and around the city in the state are highly condemnable.
These incidents, he said, are completely detrimental to the peaceful atmosphere of Hyderabad City that known for its Ganga Jamna tahzeeb.
Recalling the historic incident of religious tolerance of H.E.H Mir Osman Ali Khan the 7th Nizam of Princely State of Hyderabad Deccan, he said, when some engineers brought the plan of high court into the notice of Osman Ali Khan seeking removal of a temple exiting at the site, the later categorically refused to approve the plan saying I can’t allow to form an structure meant for delivering justice by demolishing the religious structure in unjustified way. He then ordered to change the plan instead of demolishing the holy structure. We could witness the temple standing in the high court premises even today,” explain Al-Hajri.
However, he said, the KCR, who always pretend to be the present day ‘Nizam’ has failed to uphold the Ganga Jumni Tahzeeb of the city by pulling down the religious structures one after another.
Condemning the demolition of two Mosques and a Temple at the secretariat, Moulana Syed Taraq Quadri, President All India Majlis-Inquilab-e-Millat (AIMIM), said “This incident is another benchmark of Chandrashekar Rao’s Secular Governance. KCR feigning ignorance amounts to rubbing salt on the wounds inflicted & nothing less than mockery of Community’s intelligence.”
“Keeping no option open for deliberation shows that CM least bothered about having the same and now contemplating to talk to religious heads is nothing but eyewash. CM will go down in history as the destroyer of Religious Places. We demand the construction of Mosques and Temple at the same place,” he alleged.
“Government’s move, he added, is not at all in the interest of the states present economic condition which is already lurked by the pandemic. The decision to demolish the structures was not taken with cautious instrumentalism and would attract far-reaching economic consequences.”
The burst of outrage among the Muslim community is not by fluke. It has an element of plausibility as they are witnessing these incidents quite after every few years. It all started with the demolition of Masjid-e-Omer Farooq at Shamshabad in the Year 2007 during the construction of International Airport by GMR Group.
However, following the slew of protests and demonstrations from Muslim community the then government has announced to provide 1,000 square yard of land away from the airport runway for the construction of Mosque. But, it takes almost two years of time to get the same when the then-District Collector Dana Kishore issued an order in the year 2009 allotting the land seven kilometers away from the actual place where the mosque was demolished.
Not much time was passed to this incident, another demolition was taking place at Amberpet in the year 2019 where Masjid-e-Ek-KhaNa was pulled down by the GHMC bringing back the chaos on roads that had disturbed the communal harmony quite for some time.
Now, with the fresh incident of alleged demolition of two mosques in state secretariat the sentiments of Muslim community has offended yet again and brewed up a political debate among the leaders as well as the religious figures.
Meanwhile, the High Court granted a stay on the demolition of secretariat building on Friday while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed against the state government’s move. The two-member bench has asked the government to produce before the court all necessary permissions for demolition besides clearance from Municipal authorities as well as Pollution Control Board and posted the matter till 13th July.
In yet another major development the Chief Minister K.Chandrashakher Rao on Friday announced to rebuild all the three religious structures that were allegedly demolished at state secretariat.
With the religious bodies vehemently lashing out at the Chief Minister for standing mute spectator at mayhem caused at the secretariat, the a press release was issued by the CM expressing his regret over the incident. However, he has announced today evening that a new temple and a mosque would be rebuilt in the proposed new secretariat premises. “I felt sorry about the incident. It should not have happened. A new temple and a mosque will be build in a more spacious structure of new secretariat on government’s cost,” the press release said.
