Congress expresses firm commitment to Places of Worship Act, says BJP 'violating' it

New Delhi: Amid the row over claims on a mosque in Sambhal and Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti's shrine in Ajmer, the Congress on Friday reiterated its "firmest commitment" to the letter and spirit of the Places of Worship Act, 1991, which, it said, was being "violated brazenly" by the BJP.

The opposition party made the assertion in a resolution passed by the Congress Working Committee during its over four-hour-long meeting at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters here.

"After reiterating its firmest commitment to the letter and spirit of the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which is being violated brazenly by the BJP, the CWC discussed the challenges faced by the Indian National Congress following the results of the four Vidhan Sabha elections," the CWC resolution read.

The party's commitment to the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 assumes significance as it comes days after a violent protest against a court-ordered survey of the Mughal-era mosque in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal claimed four lives.

Also, a local court in Ajmer, known the world over as home of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti's dargah visited by thousands of devotees cutting across religious divides every day, has issued notices to the dargah committee, the Ministry of Minority Affairs and the Archaeological Survey of India on the plea seeking to declare the shrine a temple.

The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act prohibits change of character of religious places as they existed as on August 15, 1947. However, the Supreme Court had noted that it had earlier dealt with the Act in its 2019 Ayodhya verdict and one of the law's provisions, Section 3, did not expressly bar ascertaining the religious character of the place of worship.

The Congress Working Committee meeting was chaired by party president Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by former party chief Rahul Gandhi and AICC general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, K C Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh, among others.