NEW DELHI: Congress MP and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijaya Singh on Sunday questioned the high court’s Bhojshala verdict, claiming that a monument protected by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) cannot be a “place of worship”. He further called the court’s verdict “vague”. “ASI’s protected monument is not a place for worship…in a report submitted by the Archaeological Survey of India, it was mentioned that they had found no evidence of a temple at the site…High Court’s order is very vague,” ANI quoted him saying. This comes as Bhoj Utsav Samiti member Ashok Kumar Jain alleged that restrictions were imposed on Hindu worship during Digvijaya Singh’s tenure as MP CM. “We used to offer prayers here every Tuesday, but the Congress state government under Digvijay Singh put restrictions on us and allowed us only once a year on Basant Panchami, while giving the rights to offer Namaz to the Muslims,” ANI quoted him saying.The MP HC on Friday held that the disputed Bhojshala-Kamal Maula complex retains the religious character of Bhojshala, describing it as a temple devoted to Goddess Vagdevi (Saraswati) from the Bhoj-Parmar era. The court also partly quashed the Archaeological Survey of India’s April 7, 2003 order that had allowed members of the Muslim community to offer Friday Namaz at the site. According to ASI counsel Aviral Vikas Khare, the Bhojshala complex will continue to remain under the protection and management of the Archaeological Survey of India.
