Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MP Sanjay Raut on Wednesday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party was trying to destroy social harmony in the state, reported The Hindu.
The Rajya Sabha MP’s remarks came after the state government on Tuesday constituted a Special Investigation Team to inquire into an alleged attempt by Muslim men to forcibly enter the Trimbakeshwar temple in Nashik.
The order was issued after the temple authorities filed a police complaint alleging that on May 13, a group of Muslims attempted to offer a chadar – a ceremonial cloth printed with religious verses – to Hindu deity Shiva. Four Muslim men have also been arrested in the case.
However, Muslim community leaders have claimed that they were only following a decades-old ritual of offering frankincense at the entrance of the temple. The temple authorities have denied that any such tradition exists.
“There is a 100-year-old tradition where devotees of the Sufi saint Gulab Shah Sandal offer frankincense at the steps of the Trimbakeshwar temple during their procession and pass on,” Raut said on Wednesday, according to The Hindu. “…No one forcibly attempted to enter the temple.”
He added that such traditions of communal harmony are common across the country and said that the state government was deliberately trying to destroy the social equilibrium in…
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