Lucknow: BJP MP and former Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police Brij Lal on Thursday alleged that the Mulayam Singh Yadav government attempted to organise Ramzan prayers near the Hanumangarhi temple in Ayodhya in 2003 as part of its “appeasement politics”. Recalling the incident, Brij Lal stated that during the month of Ramzan in October-November 2003, the then Inspector General of the Lucknow zone, under which Faizabad (now Ayodhya) fell, allegedly tried to facilitate the offering of namaz by Muslims on the road opposite Hanumangarhi in Ayodhya.
Without naming the officer, Brij Lal claimed that the said officer had Left leanings and was considered close to the then Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav. He further alleged that the IG made the move with the backing of the government. Lal also claimed that the IG frequently hobnobbed with a former professor of chemical engineering at Banaras Hindu University, who was dismissed by the university over alleged links with Naxals.
Brij Lal said that 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 opposed the proposal, stating that such an arrangement would not be permitted. According to Brij Lal, this irked the IG, who remarked that if it were entirely up to him, he would even allow roza on the roof of Hanumangarhi.
The then SSP responded by saying that Holi should first be allowed inside Jama Masjid before any such proposal could even be considered, Lal recollected. 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.
Brij 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”, Brij Lal said it reflected the administrative and political atmosphere prevailing in Uttar Pradesh at the time.
