JD-U to drag minister to court for gold hunt

Angered by the treasure hunt in the Raja Rao Ram Bux Singh fort in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district, motivated by a seer’s dream, the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) on Tuesday declared that it would drag the Union Minister of State Charan Das Mahant to the court. 

Party chief Sharad Yadav said that the JD-U would file a case against Mahant for disseminating superstition. 

“We will file a complaint against the minister who is promoting superstition among the people. We will make him a full time Mahant (priest),” said Yadav. The minister’s surname in Hindi means “priest”. 

Charan Das Mahant is said to have taken the initiative for seer Shobhan Sarkar’s dream to be followed up by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). The senior leader slammed the government for excavating a fort on the basis of Sarkar’s dream. He said that the move will damage the image of the country in the world.

He asserted that there would have been nothing wrong, had the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) dug it up on its own findings. Yadav demanded that officers of the ASI and Geological Survey of India should be alerted that they would be punished, if no gold is found. 

He also took a dig at the BJP and their prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for his expression of regret after making a statement against Sarkar, who dreamed that a 1,000 tonnes of gold was buried beneath the Unnao fort.