No decision to excavate near Qutub Minar yet: Culture minister G Kishan Reddy

New Delhi: After reports emerged that the Union government is likely to set up a team of serving or retired officials to study the Qutub Minar, Union minister for culture G Kishan Reddy refuted the claims, stating that no such decision had been taken yet.

“No such decision has been taken yet,” G Kishan Reddy told HT.

HT reached out to the Archaeological Survey of India for a comment but did not receive any response immediately.

An official seeking anonymity, however, said that a “regular” visit was conducted by culture secretary Govind Mohan on Saturday. “It was a regular inspection,” an official said. The official also added that an inspection of the premises may be on the cards.

The entire controversy comes on the heels of the Gyanvapi mosque-temple case, wherein the Supreme Court on Friday said that the ascertainment of the religious character of a place may not be barred by the Places of Worship Act, 1991, as it refrained from interfering with the mosque survey. It also transferred a suit filed by Hindu petitioners from the Varanasi civil judge to the district judge for deciding on the mosque management committee’s objections against the inquiry.

At the same time, former Union minister of culture Prahlad Patel last week asserted that the Qutub Minar was built after “vandalising temples”. “There were three places related to the dignity of India about which the country has been very sensitive; Kashi, Mathura and Ayodhya,” the minister said.

“About Qutub Minar, it is written over there in Farsi that it has been built by destroying 27 temples and this was written by the people who committed this, not the ASI or government. No evidence will be bigger than this,” he added. “We don’t have any complaints about the people who are doing criticism on our claims, because the truth is out. But I believe that if this audacity was shown in some other country, instant action would have been taken. ASI is a government agency whose popularity is worldwide, their way of investigating and its officials are called from other countries. We should let the Court do its job with full space, independence and honour,” he stated.

A Delhi court had earlier ordered the ASI not to “remove two idols of Lord Ganesha from the Qutub Minar complex till further orders”, passed by Additional District Judge Nikhil Chopra. The two idols are called ‘Ulta Ganesh’ and ‘Ganesha in cage’, and are located in the compound of the 12th-century monument, which UNESCO designated a World Heritage Site in 1993.

Additional district judge Nikhil Chopra, in an April 13 order, asked that status quo be maintained till the next hearing.

The court was hearing a suit filed by advocate Hari Shankar Jain on behalf of Jain deity Tirthankar Lord Rishabh Dev, claiming that 27 temples were partly demolished by Qutubuddin Aibak, a general in the army of Muhammad Gauri, and that the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque was raised inside the complex by reusing the material.