‘No mosque will be allowed in Ayodhya’: BJP leader Vinay Katiyar's remarks stir controversy

Lucknow: Senior BJP leader and former Lok Sabha member Vinay Katiyar on Wednesday triggered a huge controversy after he said that the Dhannipur mosque would not be allowed in Ayodhya and that the Muslims should construct the mosque across the Saryu river in some other district.

Katiyar, former president of Bajrang Dal, made the comments while speaking to reporters in Ayodhya.

His comments came following rejection of the map of Dhannipur mosque by the local development authorities.

Katiyar, who has been a prominent face of the Ram Temple movement, said that he did not attach any importance to the statements by some leaders that the mosque would be constructed at Dhannipur, near Ayodhya.

‘’Ayodhya belongs to Lord Rama only….there is no use of a mosque here,’’ he said.

The firebrand saffron leader said that the Muslims should leave Ayodhya and settle elsewhere.

Samajwadi Party (SP) MP from Ayodhya Awadhesh Prasad slammed Katiyar’s remarks and said that the BJP leader had lost his ‘mental balance’. ‘’Katiyar is a spent force…he has lost his mental balance,’’ he said.

The Supreme Court had, while deciding the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid Title suits, directed the state government to provide five acres of land to the Sunni Central Waqf Board outside the Ayodhya town for the construction of a Mosque. The state government later allotted five acres of land near Dhannipur village.

The Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation is overseeing the construction of the Mosque. The construction work however has yet to start as the map of the mosque was rejected by the Ayodhya Development Authority citing violations of laws.

Some political analysts have termed Katiyar’s remarks as an attempt by him to make a comeback to electoral politics.