Political slugfest continues over temple demolition in Rajasthan's Rajgarh

In the continued slugfest between the BJP and Congress over the demolition of two temples in the Alwar district a saffron party MP on Friday asserted that the Rajgarh municipality headed by his party had not cleared any proposal to demolish the shrinesJaipur Rural MP Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore alleged that the temples were demolished in haste without any clearance by any senior government official in the districtThe temples were demolished when Alwars district collector had been transferred and his successor was yet to assume charge alleged RathoreSticking to the Congress charge Rajasthans Food and Civil Supplies Minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas asked the BJP to tender an apology to the country for allegedly demolishing the temple in a town with its municipal body headed by themTwo temples were demolished during an antiencroachment drive in Alwar districts Rajgarh dearly this week triggering an exchange of barbs on Friday between the Congress and BJP in RajasthanRajgarh is a BJPrun municipality in the Congressruled RajasthanIn a news conference here Rathore also accused the Rajasthan government of pursuing the politics of appeasement and hurting the sentiments of the majority communityHe said the demolition of the temples was nowhere in the proposal presented before the municipal committee board and in any case no religious place can be demolished without the permission of senior officers such as the district collectorThe temple was demolished in a hurry when the previous collector was relieved from duty and the new collector was yet to take the charge he allegedThis action was done with a malicious intention of vengeance The incident of Alwar and the violence in Karauli are known to everyone Section 144 is being imposed on Hindu yatras in the state The way appeasement politics is being done in Rajasthan for a particular community is crystal clear Rathore saidHe said it seems a Talibani mindset exists in the Ashok Gehlot government in the state where cases of atrocities on women and Dalits are on the rise and the government is miserably failing in providing drinking water to the peopleA fivemember BJP panel headed by state president Satish Poonia visited Rajgarh where two temples and some shops were demolished on SundayWhile one temple was completely demolished and one partially The owners of the completely demolished temple had removed the idols The sanctum sanctorum of the partially demolished temple was stated to be intactBJP MP Sumedhanand Sarawasti who was a member of the factfinding committee said The 300yearold temple has been demolished the Congress government and the chief minister should publicly apologiseThe idols should be installed respectfully by getting the temples rebuilt he further demandedOn the other hand Rajasthan minister Khachariyawas said the BJP should apologise to the country as they are spreading lies after demolishing temples in Rajgarh here the municipal body headed by them cleared the proposal to bring down the templesThere is documentary evidence that Nagar Palika Board had made the proposal to this effect The BJP is conspiring to foment communal riots in the entire state by misusing social media The BJP wants to win the lost battle in Rajasthan But I will tell them that they hastened in spoiling the atmosphere as the assembly elections are due after one and a half years Khachariyawas saidFormer Congress MP Bhanwar Jitendra Singh and Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Tikaram Jully also reached Rajgarh to inspect the demolished templesBJPs Rajya Sabha member Kirodi Lal Meena tweeted on Saturday Former MP Bhanwar Jitendra Singh and Minister Tikaram Jully have assured the reconstruction of temples in Rajgarh but my other demands are compensation to people whose houses were demolished and to punish officials involved in this misdeedHe said he had also demanded a judicial inquiry into the matter but his demands were yet to be metThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever