LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday spoke in the state Assembly about the ‘pran pratishtha‘ ceremony at Ayodhya and referred to the disputed sites of Kashi and Mathura. Yogi Adityanath’s reference to Mathura and Kashi comes within a month of the ‘pran pratishtha’ ceremony of the Balak Ram idol at the Ayodhya Ram Mandir. “It is mine and my government’s privilege to have facilitated the Ayodhya Deepotsav, which became a national celebration,” he said. “Ayodhya city was brought within the purview of prohibitions and curfew by the previous governments. For centuries, Ayodhya was cursed with ugly intentions. It faced a planned disdain. Such treatment to public sentiments was perhaps never seen anywhere else. Ayodhya faced injustice,” Yogi said. The Ram Janmabhoomi land in Ayodhya saw a protracted legal battle. It was handed over for the construction of a temple after a landmark Supreme Court judgment in 2019. The Krishna Janmabhoomi site in Mathura and the Kashi Vishwanath temple complex in Varanasi are the two other disputed lands that Hindus have been claiming. “When I speak about injustice, we recall the 5,000-year-old thing. Injustice was done even to the Pandavas at that time… That had happened with Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura…,” Yogi Adityanath said on Wednesday. Quoting from Ramdhari Singh Dinkar’s ‘Rashmirathi’, Yogi Aditynath said, “At that time, Krishna had gone to the Kauravas and said, then give us just five villages, keep all the land you have. We will happily eat there.” “Krishna had asked for five villages that time. Krishna had gone for an agreement. He asked for justice, even if it was half. But here, the society and its faith, for hundreds of years, was talking about three, just three,” Yogi Adityanath said, referring to the spots at Ayodhya, Mathura and Varanasi. “Those three, because they are special places, they are not normal. They are the places of the incarnation of the Lords,” he said. If Ayodhya is considered the birthplace of Lord Ram, Mathura is believed to be Lord Krishna’s birthplace. The Gyanvapi site in Varanasi is considered to be one of the 12 Jyotirlingas. “Duryodhana wo bhi de na saka, Ashish samaj ki le na saka. Ulte, Hari ko bandhe chala, jo tha asadhya, sadhne chala,” the Chief Minister quoted from Dinkar’s ‘Rashmirathi’. These lines from the poem in translation mean, Duryodhana couldn’t even give [those 5 villages] and get blessed. Instead, he sought to tame Hari, which was impossible. Hari refers to Krishna, to whom the temple site at Mathura is dedicated. Yogi Adityanath then went on to talk about the opposition to the demands. “But there is political stubbornness and votebank politics, and that is what results in disputes,” he said. “We asked for just three places, there was no dispute with other places.” Talking about the latest court order that allowed Hindus to pray at one of the sealed cellars, Vyasji ka Tehkhana, at the Gyanvapi site, Yogi Adityanath said, “After the people got to see the celebrations in Ayodhya, Nandi Baba said, why should I wait.” Nandi bull is the companion of Lord Shiva, to whom the Kashi Vishwanath temple at Gyanvapi is dedicated.
