Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said he will not attend the inauguration of a mosque in Ayodhya if he gets an invitation for the ceremony by the Sunni Waqf Board. The CM added that he knows no one will invite him.
Adityanath said he will not go there ‘as a Yogi’ and ‘as a Hindu’.
READ MORE: Sunni Waqf Board sets up foundation for Ayodhya mosque construction
Adityanath said ‘as a Chief Minister’ he has no problems with any religion, adding that political leaders who attend roza or iftaar, wearing skull caps, are only posturing as secular.
“Yeh secularism nahi hai (this is not secularism), and the public realises that,” he told ABP News on Wednesday.
“Dekhiye, agar aap mujhse ek mukhyamantri ke roop mein poochhenge toh mujhe kisi mazhab, sampraday se koi parhez nahi hai. Agar ek Yogi ke roop mein poochhenge toh katai nahi jaoonga (if you ask me as a CM, then I am not averse to any religion or group. But if asked (to attend) as a Yogi, then I will definitely not go),” he said.
“I will not go because I am a Yogi. As a Hindu, I have a right to live according to my method of worship…” Adityanath added.
Adityanath said that he is not a party in the event of the mosque’s construction and “that is why no one will call me there, and I don’t want to go….”
“I know that I will not get any such invitation…” he asserted.
The Chief Minister was speaking to the channel hours after he attended the bhumi pujan that marked the beginning of the construction work of a grand Ram Mandir. The temple is being constructed after a long fought legal battle and the Supreme Court’s November 2019 order that ruled in favour of Ram Lalla and also ordered the government to provide a five-acre land to Muslims at a prominent location in Ayodhya for the construction of a mosque.
After the Supreme Court’s order, the Uttar Pradesh government had allotted a five-acre land in Dhannipur village in Sohaval Tehsil of Ayodhya.
The Uttar Pradesh Sunni Waqf Board has set up an Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation to oversee the construction of a mosque on a five-acre land in Ayodhya. According to the board, a mosque, two centres to showcase Indo-Islamic culture and study, a charitable hospital, and a public library would come up on the plot.
The Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board was one of the main litigants in the Ram Janmbhoomi-Babri Masjid case.
