Accusing the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), – an agency supervised under Ministry of Tourism and Culture Government of India, of waging a cultural onslaught on the rich and tolerant history of Muslim rulers in Hyderabad by throwing their historic monuments in a shambles, the congress party took the issue of closed Charminar mosque to the public by stoking-up a signature campaign.
The signature campaign – both manually and online, was kick started by a gung-ho young leader of Congress party Rashed Khan and attracted nearly four thousand specimens from the public in just three days.
Finding fault with the way the Ministry of Tourism brought the historic Charminar into the list of Non-living monument, he said, “The grandiose monument built during Qutub Shahi dynasty over 400 years ago was advertently brought into the list of ‘vulnerable’ and ‘non-living monuments’ to prevent offering of prayers inside the mosque atop the edifice. It was all done surreptitiously during the year 1951 when the whole city was grappling with a chaotic situation.”
Since then, he said, the doors opening the stairway leading to the mosque atop the structure were completely locked under the grip that the structure is vulnerable to any calamity. “However, the tourists are freely allowed to touch the height of the monument only to enthral the whole grandiose city with single eyeshot. How come few of the Namazis could pose a threat to the structure when scores of tourists were simply making it to the top of the monument freely every day,” he questioned.
“The issue was first raised with the Archaeological Survey of India at Sultan Bazar which refused to meddle into the issue and simply diverted it to the head office in Delhi. When all the correspondence with the authorities at New Delhi yielded no result, the issue was then raised with the Union Minister of Tourism Kishan Reddy who too wimp-out of it may be fear of retribution from the centre,” rued Rashed.
It is against this background, he said, we have kick started a signature campaign initially at Nampally in the city to bring awareness among the masses about the prejudiced attitude adopted by the Union Ministry of Tourism towards the mosque atop the structure while simply allowing the devotees of other communities to pray in the temple down at one of the pier. The campaign, so far, attracts nearly four thousand specimens while an online petition too accounts for another 150 signatures, explained Rashed Khan.
