Bharatiya Janata Party Politicians

"The temple today is 55 feet tall. Before its upper part was destroyed on Aurangzeb's orders in anticipation of his visit to Vrindavan in 1670 AD, the mandir was reputed to be twice that height. On its roof, after the destruction, a mehrab or prayer wall was erected and the iconoclastic emperor offered namaaz. Almost two centuries later, F.S. Growse, who belonged to the Bengal Civil Service and was Collector of Mathura District, had the mehrab removed. First, because it was an eyesore, and second, in an endeavour to redeem whatever character was left of the temple. Although the original idol remained at Jaipur, another set of deities was installed by the pujaris or priests. Since then, the temple has a flat roof. Probably, no other desecrated temple had been the subject of so much repair and refurbishment by British rulers. Of supreme importance was the fact of the mandir being restituted to Hindu devotees. It was the greatest act of shuddhi or purification although performed before Swami Dayanand Saraswati reintroduced Vedic procedures.... The Gobind Dev temple at Vrindavan, Mathura, is indeed massive its plinth is 105 feet by 117 feet. It is estimated that the original height was about 110 feet without which it would not have been possible to see the mashaal or torch either from Agra or from Delhi. The temple was built in 1590 AD by Maharaja Mansingh of Jaipur."

"A few masjids have undergone shuddhi, whether in full or part, while others are still unattended and deserve a change. For example, the Gobind Dev mandir at Vrindavan was returned to the Hindus by the British some 130 years ago. While Sultan Ghari at Delhi became a place of worship for all people; when, no one really knows. The saga at Ayodhya is incomplete. While the Nand and Rohini temple palace at Mahaban is believed to have been redeemed in the wake of independence. The edifices at Kannauj and Etawah have not undergone any stage of shuddhi. Since the cities are situated in Uttar Pradesh, the Waterloo of Aryavrat is a part of the series in the area. Quwwatul Islam at Delhi and the Adhai Din Ka Jhopra at Ajmer tell the tale of vandalism so eloquently that the viewer is shocked as he enters these masjids. The Krishnajanmabhoomi as well as Kashi Vishwanath are making do with pathetic alternatives for no shuddhi whatsoever has taken place. So also Ataladevi at Jaunpur and Bhojshala at Dhar. At Vidisha, all worship has been suspended while a great deal of the Rudra Mahalaya complex remains buried. The Adina masjid. at Maida has fallen into disuse as a place of worship, whereas Jungle Pir Baba as well as the shrine at Pavagadh are in full use as dargahs. Daulatabad is a case of redemption which took place on the morrow of the police action in 1948 against the Nizam of Hyderabad."

"Bhojshala was a college. The District Gazetteer says that Raja Bhoj school is a mosque, a part of which was converted from a Hindu institution of the 11th century, the Saraswati temple or school. According to the publication, this shrine of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of learning, is described in the Sanskrit play of Arjunavarma Paramara, 1210-16 as the ornament of the eightyfour squares of Dharanagari. Two slabs were discovered behind the mehrab, one bearing the Prakrit odes of the 11th century (supposed to have been composed by Raja Bhoj himself) and the other the Sanskrit play mentioned above, which praises Arjunavarma. These slabs stand on the north side of the building and are beautiful specimens of the stone cutter's work."

"It is strange that what a writer on Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti and the Dargah Sharief at Ajmer has said about the role of Raja Jaichand should have precipitated our visit to Kannauj on August 2, 2001. Equally strange is the fact that our interest in this great capital city of ancient Hindustan was first aroused in 1983 by Dr N .K. Bezbaruah, the versatile grand old man of Assam. He then told us how proud he was to claim direct lineage from one of the chosen Kannauj Brahmins, who were invited specially to introduce Hinduism amongst the Ahoms who had captured power in Assam and had set up their capital city at Sibsagar in the 13th century. Incidentally, the Ahoms belonged to the Shan race whose base was in Thailand. The doctor was bemoaning the paradox of his clan being, on the one hand, so proud of its Hindu ancestry and, on the other, a few sons of the same proud families taking to gun s and terrorism, as it were, against the rest of Hindustan."

"Such then was the vandalism with which the sultanate in Delhi began. As with the Quwwatul Islam masjid next to the Qutb Minar, which was also built by Sultan Aibak, so with Adhai Din Ka Jhopra at Ajmer. Both are indelible specimens of humiliation perpetrated by the victor upon the vanquished."

"Mukhlis and Khalis were in tum governors of Jaunpur under Ibrahim Naib Barbak, who was anxious to build an edifice for the residence of a celebrated saint named Saiyid Usman ofShiraz, who had fled from Delhi during Timur's invasion. In 1908, when the gazetteer was published by Nevill, the descendants of the saint still resided near the mosque. The style of architecture is not very different from that of the Jhanj hari masj id. The roof stands on ten rows of Hindu temple pillars. According to the gazetteer; the mandir had been built by Raja Vijaya Chandra. The river Gomti flows through the city of Jaunpur and there is an impressive bridge across the river. It is a massive stone structure built in the 1560s. The bridge does not rise towards its centre but is flat. It is an original construction. The only feature that mars its originality is a colossal stone lion standing over a small elephant. According to Nevill, it bears the stamp of ancient Hindu workmanship and must have adorned the gateway of some building erected by the Raja ofKannauj. To the west of the northern end of the bridge is the big fort of Jaunpur, built in the time of Ibrahim. But Firoz Shah Tughlaq is credited with having rebuilt the fortress on an old structure inherited from the Hindu era. Evidence of the legacy. is the masjid inside the fort, built on temple pillars of various shapes and designs. Nevill has remarked that some of the pillars are upside down which supports the theory that a number of temples in Jaunpur were destroyed in order to provide stones required to build the fort; the inner face of almost every stone bore carvings, which had decorated Hindu temples."

"The first example of shuddhi that the author came across was the tomb of Sultan Ghari which has an interesting history and a delightful present. If only this example of popular spontaneity can be extended to all the temples converted into mosques, would there not be Hindu-Muslim friendship? Just go any afternoon and see for yourself."

"Mind you, the ASI has done nothing to excavate or salvage anything in the complex since independence. With the passing of the Protection of National Monuments Act, 1951 (see Annexure II), all archaeological activities have been frozen. The credit for the excavations goes to Cunningham and Dr. D R Bhandarkar; during the first half of the 20th century by the latter."

"It is best to quote the letter dated May 1, 1952 issued by the Collector of Dhar district of the then Madhya Bharat state which later became a part of Madhya Pradesh: I am directed to request you kindly to inform the Hindu Maha Sabha that the building called Bhoj shala situated at Dhar cannot be given to either the Hindu or the Muslim communities for conversion into a temple or a full-fledged mosque and that this being an archaeological monument the right of entry to it would be conceded to all sections of people for purpose of sight seeing. The Muslim community may also be kindly informed, if necessary, that while the Muslims may continue to say their Friday prayers in the building, no effects must be kept there and nobody should use any part of it for residence. The Dhar State Huzur Durbar office file year 1935-36."

"One night during the monsoon of 1991, the rain was so heavy that it washed away the wall that was concealing the frontage of the Bijamandal mosque established by Aurangzeb in 1682. This masjid is a centre of attraction in the district town of Vidisha situated some 40 kms from Bhopal. The broken wall exposed so many Hindu idols that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was left with no choice but to excavate. For three centuries, the idols were buried under the platform, on the northern side, which was used as the hall of prayer conducted specially on days of Eid. Fortunately, the district col lector in 1991 happened to offer protection to the surveyors of ASI, who were otherwise reluctant to expose themselves to the wrath of bigots."

"The Department of Archaeology, Gwalior, 1952, has in a special book dealt on the Cultural Heritage of Madhya Bharat, which, in 1956, amalgamated with the Central Provinces and came to be known as Madhya Pradesh. This book Dhar and Mandu reiterates what Major C.E. Luard,34 the official gazeteer of Dhar, had said in 1912. The carved pillars used all over the building and the delicately carved ceilings of the prayer hall seem to have belonged to the original Bhojshala. On the pavement of the prayer hall are seen numerous slabs of black slate stone the writings on which were also scraped off. From a few slabs recovered from another part of the building and now exhibited there, which contain the texts of the poetic works of Parijatamanjari and Kurmastotra, it appears that the old college was adorned with numerous Sanskrit and Maharashtri Prakrit texts, beautifully engraved on such slabs."

"On the strength of their conviction, the local residents demanded that the Bhojshala masjid be reconverted into a mandir. Although the Maharaja of Dhar was a Hindu, he was under the influence of the British Resident, who was reported to have advised him to ban entry into the edifice for a while. The Maharaja therefore did as advised, except for allowing Hindus to enter on Vasant Panchami day which is the day of Saraswati puja. Similarly, the Muslims were allowed entry on one day in the year. This precedent was twisted by the Digvijay Singh government into a discriminatory order mentioned earlier. Such are the wages of secularism in our country. · '"

"Taking any action against Amul is like demoralizing the patriotism of our people and insulting our soldiers. It is as simple as that. So far, Twitter hasn’t even apologized to Amul."

"Amul is not just a milk cooperative. It represents the soul and fragrance of the Indian soil. Restricting and rebuking it for being Indian, for being a patriotic citizen supporting the soldiers fighting the enemies on the border is a cardinal sin. It’s an unpardonable crime for which Twitter India must be punished."

"Mamata Ji, you are the same person who said about CAA that we will not allow Hindu, Sikh, Parsi or Christian refugees who suffered violence to enter Bengal. Mamata ji is always against CAA, but CAA has absolutely nothing to do with the citizens of the country. India, be Hindu or Muslim."

"“Afzal Guru was given death punishment by the law. The matter went to the Supreme Court, and even a review was done but he was found to be involved in anti-national and terrorist activities.” “To win the election, will you talk about breaking India? It's good that his real face has just been exposed. The people of Kashmir and BJP won't let his conspiracy to weaken India be successful.”"

"What you do is your job and your right. But how you do it should be made public. That’s why the government had to release an elaborate response yesterday. A US-based for-profit making company is lecturing us on democracy? They are teaching us about the freedom of expression? This is unacceptable."

"“The capital punishment awarded to Afzal Guru was part of legal and constitutional process, which ought to have taken place earlier.” “Supreme Court had upheld his death sentence and again in 2007 had rejected his review petition. The question of delay remains important.”*"

"There are many fact-checkers employed by the company. For example, if someone tweets something, these fact-checkers check whether it is right or wrong. Who are these fact-checkers? Neither are their names made public, nor there is any information on how they have been appointed. These people have the responsibility of regulating what 130 crore Indians can tweet."

"These fact checkers have just one agenda: Hate Modi. They don’t want to criticise, they just want to hate Modi. And these people are financially supported by such people who want to see country split into pieces. Is it not our job to monitor this? In a country of 130 crores, can’t you get neutral objective fact-checkers? These questions will be asked and they should be asked."

"Social media companies already have appointed fact checkers. Who are these fact-checkers and how are they appointed? There are some fact-checkers whose main agenda is drive hatred against Modi."

"The move is significant as it may make available several vaccines, including those made by Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, in India with certain conditions. Coming down heavily on Gandhi’s demand to fast-track vaccine approvals, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had tweeted, “After failing as a part-time politician, has Rahul Gandhi switched to full time lobbying? First he lobbied for fighter plane companies by trying to derail India’s acquisition programme. Now he is lobbying for pharma companies by asking for arbitrary approvals for foreign vaccines.”"

"Take two recent incidents that show Twitter India’s clear abrasiveness towards the patriotic people. Everyone knows how politically ill-willed Twitter India is towards an ideological section of society. The first was the blocking of @trueindology’s account for uploading an original quote taken from a book published by the Indian Council of Historical Research that described Akbar’s happiness on killing thousands of Hindus. Twitter India took “punitive action” against the handle. Why? No one dared to question the move. Soon after, another incident took place. This time, the platform decided to block @Amulcoop’s account for uploading two very beautiful and strong banners one showing the famous Amul girl standing up to the Chinese ... People, often the secular and the de-Indianised elite, may say, “But Twitter India is handled by Indians.” Yes, that is true but they work for a foreign company whose headquarters is in America. It has nothing to do with the Indian sensibilities and feelings. The British empire in India also had munshis, chowkidars, darbaris, mansabdars during moguls who were all Indians. But they worked for a foreign power who had nothing to do with the Indian soul and sensibilities."

"We will pick up the threads from the visit of the president of Pakistan. We will increasingly endeavor to revise the vision of the relationship of peace, friendship and cooperation with Pakistan."

"This summit has set the tone for future relations with Pakistan, ... The caravan of peace has continued its march and on some auspicious day it will reach its destination."

"We do not believe that bilateral relations between India and Pakistan ought to or can be held hostage by any single issue."

"The government's priority remains the earliest termination of this hijacking and the earliest return of the passengers, crew and aircraft."

"Who is w:Lenin? What is his connection to India? What is the connection of communists to India? And remember Periyar is the next."

"Vijay dared to say that we should build hospitals instead of temples, will he say the same about churches, too? Why are only temples being referred to?"

"It (firing on kar sewaks) was wrong then (1990). Killing people is no joke."

"I would call it divine providence. In 1528, Mughal ruler Babar’s general Mir Baqi demolished the Ram temple at Ayodhya not because he wanted to build another place of worship, but because he wanted to insult Hindus. Maybe it was destined that the dhaancha (structure) would be demolished with me as chief minister. Had there been no demolition, probably the courts too would have ordered status quo. So, in a sense, it was the demolition that actually has paved the way for the August 5 bhumi pujan and naturally, I am elated."

"Country knows...if there is a Prime Minister without the Gandhi family, then he is merely a shadow Prime Minister, a puppet Prime Minister with the strings lying with the 10 Janpath. In such a scenario, the country knew Singh's strings were lying with 10 Janpath."

"Rahul Gandhi wears a janeu (sacred thread). We want to ask him - he is going to Ujjain - what kind of 'Jenau Dhari' are you? What is your gotra?"

"We are fighting not with our names; we are fighting with the name of our supreme leader Narendra Modi."

"In many states, the rate of rape has come down because the prime minister gave women ‘izzatghar’ (toilet)."

"I asked Patra to recite one Chaupai of the Ramayana. He doesn’t even know one single word from Ramayana but I have the Sundar Kand (fifth book of the epic) on my fingertips. Does that mean I should ask Sambit Patra to go to Pakistan? No. But whenever I talk about economic issues, he starts shouting Pakistan and Imran Khan."

""Even as we guard against the dangers from abroad, we cannot neglect the daunting challenge of terrorism from within our borders," Raje said. The chief minister said no economy is insulated from such threats. "Terrorism continuous to pose a global threat that is becoming increasingly complex and dynamic. This threat is not new, but technology and the Internet have increased its frequency and lethality," she said. Raje said there should be no distinction between terror groups. It is important that countries and institutions work together to ensure infrastructure and citizens are secure."

"Rajasthan is bigger than Germany and has more people than France. Being India’s biggest state without much water is a huge challenge. And having a young demographic profile (34 per cent of our population is between 18 and 39 years) means we need to create eight lakh new jobs every year. All this is complicated by the fact that for many decades after Independence, we lagged behind other states in investments and outcomes in most industrial, economic, education and social development indicators."

"One of my lifelong inspirations has been Mahatma Gandhi’s call to “become the change you seek”."

"'It makes no sense... If you (the Centre) can allow it (an anti-terror law) in Maharashtra, why not in Rajasthan?'‘There’s no compromise on Sonia as PM. I have no problem with any other person, Priyanka or Rahul’‘India will never have a revolution. China will need one every two-three centuries, their society is hierarchical, has one core centre. India is diverse’‘I want govt to declare Chandigarh a hockey city and put five astroturfs there. Automatically the players will come’‘If you give computers to young children, they start to believe that you don’t have to think, all you have to do is search’"

"In his death we have lost a prominent public personality and a statesman."

"Mr. Bakht was a freedom-fighter. He struggled for democracy and the nationalist cause with courage and conviction. He rendered distinguished service as a member of my Cabinet for sometime."

"It is important for policy makers to recognize that we don’t live in an economy but in a society. However, it is also important for them to realize that delivering social outcomes requires economic progress and financial resources. The Rajasthan model of development aims for outcomes and balance in three objectives—social justice, effective governance and job creation."

"This is not a crime, we are in the middle of a war."

"What exactly did I say that Ankit Sharma was stabbed 400 times? Or that Shahrukh picked up gun and roamed about on the streets of Delhi? What made them collect petrol bombs and acid on the roofs? And more importantly, there are no riots when people chant ‘Bharat tere tukde honge’ or ‘Afzal hum sharminda hai’, painting Khilafat 2.0 on Jamia walls is not considered provocative nor is giving a call to hit the streets. But my request to the police to get the road opened is considered provocative."

"A river becomes part of the city when it flows through it. Yamuna flows through Delhi and it very much belongs to Delhi and Delhi belongs to Yamuna. Despite that it is so unclean. The condition of river is reflective of the political leadership. Look at Sabarmati in Ahmedabad. How it was cleaned and how was the leadership there who got it cleaned. In Delhi no one wants to clean the Yamuna because it is a business for them, a way to make money by asking for various funds."

"Why have there been no convictions of those who carried out massacres in Moradabad, Bhagalpur, Meerut, and numerous other places? During the regime of Nehru, India witnessed the maximum number of riots. There were terrible riots during the rule of Indira Gandhi and even Rajiv Gandhi. Gujarat was riot-prone even before independence. But they made it out as if riots during Modi regime were communal and all others in Congress regime “secular”."

"There is a madrasa near Chhota Udaipur run by Ghulam Vastanvi’s educational trust. During the 2002 riots, this madrasa was surrounded by a riotous mob. About 400 students were trapped inside the madrasa. Some Muslims of the area phoned me since I was a minister in the Vajpayee cabinet. I, at once, informed Narendra Modi about the imminent danger to the lives of all those students, and requested quick action. In this, as well as in all other such cases, Narendrabhai fully cooperated. But the news that came out was all negative. They talked of killings but made no mention of all those who were saved due to Modi’s timely interventions."

"India after Independence has produced few leaders who were also political philosophers. Deendayalji was one of the few, and the finest."

"We have grown over-dependent upon foreign aid in everything from thinking, management, capital, methods of production, technology, etc., to even the standards and forms of consumption. This is not the road to progress and development. We will forget our individuality and become virtual slaves once again."