Uttar Pradesh 2023: Mathura, Kashi occupy centre stage, gangster-politician dies on live TV

Lucknow: As construction of the Ram temple on a once-disputed piece of land in Ayodhya picked pace over the past year, two other temple-mosque disputes reached significant milestones in courts.

Also during 2023, gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad met his end: he was shot dead along with his brother Ashraf Ahmad while the police were escorting them to a hospital. UP strongmen Mukhtar Ansari and Azam Khan suffered big political jolts.

The Allahabad High Court delivered two rulings that fanned new life into disputes in Varanasi and Mathura, where major mosques stand adjacent to prominent temples. In each case, Hindu litigants argue that the mosques were built over portions of demolished temples during the Mughal rule.

The HC recently gave the go-ahead for a survey of the Shahi Idgah mosque complex adjacent to the Krishna Janmasthan temple in Mathura.

Earlier, on the orders of a local court, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) surveyed the Gyanvapi mosque next to the Kashi-Vishwanath temple. For now, the survey report remains in sealed cover.

And in a more significant ruling, the high court dismissed the Muslim side’s challenge on the maintainability of a three-decade-old petition by Hindu litigants seeks the “restoration” of the Gyanvapi mosque.

The HC dismissed Muslim side’s argument that the suit was barred under Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 -- a law that was supposedly meant to put an end to similar legal tussles once the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri mosque dispute was settled.

That Act barred the conversion of the religious character of a place of worship from what existed on 15 August 1947. But the high court has now said the “religious character” can only be determined in court through evidence offered by both sides. Either the Gyanvapi compound has a Hindu religious character or a Muslim religious character. It can’t have dual character at the same time, Justice Rohit Ranjan Agarwal said.

Ayodhya, the site of the biggest temple-mosque dispute of all, is being readied for the “pran pratistha”, or the consecration, of the Ram Lalla idol at the new temple on January 22. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the mega event that comes just months ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust triggered a minor row by suggesting that it would be best if BJP veterans L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, who were at the forefront of the Ram Mandir agitation, kept away from the event because of their age and health.

The Vishva Hindu Parishad quickly stepped in for damage control There has been an infrastructure development spree in Ayodhya in tandem with the temple construction -- from the widening of roads to the construction work on a new airport. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath even convened a meeting of cabinet meeting in the city -- his ministers travelled there from Lucknow -- on the anniversary of the SC judgment in 2019 that paved the way for the temple’s construction.

In September, an Assembly by-poll in Ghosi brought some hope to the opposition’s INDIA grouping, which aims to take on the BJP in 2024. Samajwadi Party candidate Sudhakar Singh defeated his BJP rival, as the Congress refrained from entering the contest.