Ajmer Dargah row: Ex-bureaucrats write to PM on 'ideological assault'; seek halt of 'illegal' activities

New Delhi: Days after a local court ordered a survey of the Ajmer Sharif dargah, a group of former bureaucrats and diplomats has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking his intervention to halt all "illegal and pernicious" activities that are an "ideological assault" on India's civilisational heritage and pervert the idea of an inclusive country.

Stating that he alone can halt "all illegal, pernicious activities", the group has reminded Modi that he himself had sent "chadars" on the occasion of the annual Urs of the 12th-century saint, Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, as a homage to his message of peace and harmony.

The group of nearly half-a-dozen former bureaucrats and diplomats, including former Delhi lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung, former high commissioner of India to the United Kingdom Shiv Mukherjee, former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi, former vice-chief of Army staff Lieutenant General Zameeruddin Shah and former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor Ravi Vira Gupta, wrote to the prime minister on November 29 about unknown fringe groups claiming to represent Hindu interests and demanding archaeological surveys of medieval mosques and dargahs to prove the previous existence of temples at these sites.

"Despite the clear provisions of the Places of Worship Act, the courts too seem to respond to such demands with undue alacrity and haste," they said.

The contents of the letter were confirmed by two of the signatories to it.

"It appears unimaginable, for example, that a local court should order a survey on the 12th-century dargah of the Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti -- one of the most sacred Sufi sites in Asia not just for Muslims but for all Indians who are proud of our syncretic and pluralist traditions.

"The very thought that a mendicant saint, a fakir, who was an integral part of the Sufi/Bhakti movement unique to the Indian subcontinent and a paragon of compassion, tolerance and harmony, could have destroyed any temple to assert his authority is ridiculous," they wrote.

On November 27, a civil court in Ajmer issued notices to the Ajmer Dargah committee, the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), after a petition was filed by Vishnu Gupta, national president of the Hindu Sena, claiming that the dargah was originally a Shiva temple.

Successive prime ministers, including Modi, have sent "chadars" on the occasion of the annual Urs of the saint.

"An ideological assault on this uniquely syncretic site is an assault on our civilisational heritage and perverts the very idea of an inclusive India that you yourself seek to reinvigorate," the group wrote to the prime minister.

"Society cannot progress nor your dream of a developed Bharat can come to fruition in the face of such disturbances," the letter added.

Calling themselves a group of independent citizens, the former bureaucrats said over the last decade, relations between communities, particularly Hindus and Muslims and to an extent Christians, have strained in India, leaving the minority communities in "extreme anxiety and insecurity".

They went on to recall the gory memories of Partition and the riots in its aftermath, as well as the periodic gruesome communal riots that strained inter-communal relations.

"However, the incidents of the last 10 years are markedly different in as much as they show the clearly partisan role of many of the state governments concerned and their administrative machinery. This, we believe, is unprecedented," they wrote.

What started as incidents of bullying or beating up Muslim men on charges of carrying beef, grew into lynchings of innocent people within their homes, followed by Islamophobic hate speeches with clearly genocidal intent, they said.

In the recent past, there have been calls for boycotting Muslim business establishments and eateries, non-renting of premises to Muslims and unrestrained bulldozing of Muslim houses at the behest of chief ministers themselves, led by a ruthless local administration, the former diplomats added.

About 1.54 lakh establishments have been hit and lakhs rendered homeless or bereft of their places of business, they said, adding that in most cases, the affected parties are Muslims.

"Such activity is truly unprecedented and has shaken the confidence not just of these minorities but indeed of all secular Indians here and abroad," they said. "As if these incidents were not enough, the latest provocation is of unknown fringe groups, claiming to represent Hindu interests, demanding archaeological surveys on medieval mosques and dargahs to prove the existence of ancient Hindu temples on the sites where these have been built," they said.

Stating that he alone can bring "all illegal, pernicious activities" to a halt, they urged the prime minister to ensure that chief ministers and the administrations under them adhere to the letter of law and the Constitution as any "dereliction in their duties will cause untold misery".

"There is immediate need for an interfaith meeting under your chairmanship where you as the prime minister of an inclusive Bharat should give out a message that India remains a land for all, where faiths have existed together and in harmony for centuries and that no sectarian forces will be permitted to disturb this uniquely pluralistic and diverse legacy," the former diplomats said.

"Sir, time is of the essence and we urge you to reassure all Indians, especially the minority communities, that your government will be firm in its resolve to maintain communal amity, harmony and integration," they added.