Kashi Vishwanath project takes pivotal role in BJP’s UP campaign
Hindustan TimesIn election-bound Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party is presenting the redeveloped, multi-crore Kashi Vishwanath Corridor project as an illustration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ability to meld ideological demands with modern aspirations. The party’s campaign will also showcase the redevelopment project in Varanasi as a “model of development” that can be replicated pan-India. “ …The new India is proud of its culture and also has confidence in its ability.there is Virasat and Vikas in the new India.” Following his cue, the party rank and file asserts that the development of religious places, particularly Hindu temples, should not be viewed through the prism of religion or as majoritarian appeasement, even as they see it in line with the party’s core ideology. Last month, BJP lawmaker Harnath Yadav raised the demand for the repeal of the Places of Worship, Act 1991, stating that the provisions of the law were “unconstitutional, violate the tenets of equality; and secularism, which is part of the preamble.” He said that the law cannot be challenged in court which “clearly means that legal sanctity has been given by the government to the forceful occupation of the Krishna Janmabhoomi and other religious places by foreign invaders”.