BJP MP Brij Lal claims Mulayam govt tried to hold Ramzan prayers near UP's Hanumangarhi temple

LUCKNOW: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and former UP director general of police (DGP) Brij Lal, on Thursday, claimed that the Mulayam Singh Yadav government tried to organise Ramzan prayers near Hanumangarhi temple in Ayodhya in 2003 as part of its “appeasement politics”.Recalling the incident, Lal said that during Ramzan month between October-November 2003, the then IG Lucknow zone, under which Faizabad (now Ayodhya) came, allegedly tried to facilitate offering of namaz by Muslims on the road opposite Hanumangarhi in Ayodhya. Without naming the officer, he Lal claimed that the said officer had Left leanings and was considered close to then CM Mulayam Singh Yadav. He said the IG made the move with government backing.Lal further alleged that the IG frequently socialised with a former professor of chemical engineering at Banaras Hindu University, who was dismissed by the university over alleged links with Naxals.Lal said efforts were made to persuade the mahant of Hanumangarhi with a proposal that roza and namaz arrangements would be made on the road facing the temple complex. However, the then Faizabad senior superintendent of police (SSP) opposed the proposal, saying such arrangement would not be permitted.According to Lal, this irked the IG and he remarked that if it were entirely up to him he would even allow roza on the roof of Hanumangarhi. He recollected that the then SSP responded by saying that Holi should first be allowed inside Jama Masjid before any such proposal could even be considered.He said that after discussions, it was finally decided that namaz, if held, would remain confined within the mahant’s residence premises and nothing would be visible from outside.However, intelligence inputs suggested that prayer mats were planned to be laid beginning from the three steps leading from the road to the mahant’s residence, gradually extending towards the Hanumangarhi boundary wall.Lal claimed that as soon as the first prayer mat was laid on the staircase, police personnel acting on the SSP’s instructions removed and threw it away, thereby preventing the alleged plan from expanding onto the public road.Eventually, he said, namaz was offered only within the private premises of the mahant’s residence.Calling the episode “a symbol of appeasement politics”, Lal said it reflected the administrative and political atmosphere prevailing in Uttar Pradesh at the time.