Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath
Credit: PTI File Photo
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday said that the clan of those responsible for demolishing and desecrating Hindu temples would become ‘extinct’.
‘’Jab main logon se poochta hun ki mandir todne wale logon ke parivaron ki aaj kya sthiti hai to log batate hain ki Aurangzeb ke parivar ke log aaj Kolkata ke paas rickshaw chalate hain’’ (When I ask people about the condition of those who had destroyed temples, I am told that the descendants of the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb ply rickshaws near Kolkata), Adityanath said while speaking at a function in Ayodhya.
He said that the descendants of these people (temple destroyers) would not have faced such hardships had they not destroyed and desecrated temples. ‘’Their clan will be extinct… only Sanatan Dharma can establish peace in the world,’’ he added.
‘’Temples were destroyed everywhere… Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya, Shree Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura, Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi and Harihar Temple in Sambhal,’’ he added.
Adityanath said that Sanatan Dharma was the only religion in the world, which gave shelter to every other faith in times of difficulties but the Hindus, in turn, were targeted everywhere.
‘’What happened in Bangladesh, in Pakistan and Afghanistan? We will have to respect and protect Sanatan Dharma if we want to safeguard humanity,’’ the Chief Minister said.
Adityanath’s remarks came close on the heels of his statement in the UP Assembly that Sambhal, which witnessed large scale violence during a court-mandated survey of a Mosque a few days back in which four people were killed, had a long history of communal riots since independence and that 209 Hindus had been killed in incidents of communal riots in Sambhal since 1947.
Earlier, Adityanath had said that whatever was taking place in Sambhal had also happened in Ayodhya when Mughal emperor Babar had demolished the Ram Temple.