44 detained after protest to rename Qutub Minar as ‘Vishnu Stambh’ | Newest Information Delhi

Members of two fringe right-wing teams had been detained on Tuesday close to the Qutub Minar, the place they gathered to recite the Hanuman Chalisa claiming that the thirteenth century monument was initially a Vishnu temple, and demanded that or not it’s renamed “Vishnu Stambh” and opened to Hindus for prayers.

They may not enter the monument complicated, and continued their demonstration amid heavy police presence close to the close by Bhool Bhulaiya.

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Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) chief Jai Bhagwan Goyal, who can be the worldwide president of the United Hindu Entrance and the nationwide president of the Rashtrawadi Shiv Sena, alleged he was saved beneath home arrest in Shahdara by police since Tuesday morning. “We had knowledgeable the world police commissioner about our program to chant Hanuman Chalisa, however the ACP and SHO arrived at my home round 7am with round 50 policemen and put me beneath home arrest,” alleged Goyal.

Deputy commissioner of police (south) Benita Mary Jaiker mentioned that no permission was granted by the police for the gathering outdoors the Qutub Minar complicated. She mentioned that fifty folks participated within the demonstration, and that these current on the gathering belonged to United Hindu Entrance and Rashtrawadi Shiv Sena.

“Of the 50 demonstrators, 44 had been detained beneath part 65 of the Delhi Police Act. All of them had been launched earlier than 6 pm,” mentioned DCP Jaiker, including that no first info report (FIR) was registered.

Goyal claimed that the Qutub Minar was initially a temple, and that there have been a number of idols within the complicated. “Qutub-uddin-Aibak made the Qutub Minar in 1100 AD by altering our Vishnu Stambh and breaking our Sai, Hindu, Jain temples. He wrote Qutub Minar on the pillar. Even right now, idols of our gods and goddesses are nonetheless part of the complicated which is evident proof of the actual fact our Hindu temples had been damaged to make Qutub Minar,” mentioned Goyal.

“We’ve got given a memorandum of our calls for to Union dwelling minister Amit Shah and tourism minister G Kishan Reddy,” he mentioned.

In accordance with historians, and data talked about within the Delhi gazetteer, Qutub-uddin-Aibak began the development of the Qutub Minar in round 1200 AD as a tower of victory. It was accomplished in 1220 by Illtumish, Aibak’s son-in-law and successor. Within the 14th century, Ferozshah Tughlaq made a number of additions to the construction, and later the British additionally made some additions to the complicated within the nineteenth century.

Officers of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which maintains the heritage monument, mentioned nobody entered the Qutub Minar complicated on Tuesday, and added that it had knowledgeable the police upfront as a precautionary step. “No incident happened contained in the Qutub Minar complicated and neither was anybody capable of enter the complicated. There was ample police presence outdoors the complicated. We can not management what folks do outdoors the complicated,” mentioned an official who requested to not be named.

Creator and historian Swapna Liddle mentioned the Qutub Minar was a heritage monument, and must be left untouched.

“Many of those concepts pertaining to the Qutub Minar’s historical past that individuals now have might be debated. Even after the Mughal rule, throughout the Maratha or British rule in Delhi, nobody ever thought of these items (the monument being a temple). Why are we all of a sudden elevating this? If this was a historical past that individuals had remembered for therefore many centuries, and it bothered them, they might have finished one thing about it earlier,” Liddle mentioned.