India’s BJP stirs fears of renewed mosque demolitions
Rights advocates warn ruling party’s rhetoric mirrors campaign that led to Babri mosque demolition and nationwide riots in 1992
NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is facing backlash after a social media post revived calls to seize historic mosques in Mathura and Kashi, echoing the rhetoric that preceded the destruction of the Babri mosque in 1992.
That demolition by Hindu mobs triggered nationwide riots that killed more than 2,000 people and marked a turning point in India’s slide toward religious majoritarianism.
On September 7, the BJP wrote on X that “the dream of the Ram Temple has been fulfilled, now it is the turn of Mathura–Vrindavan.” The post quoted Baba Bageshwar, a hardline Hindutva preacher who praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and declared: “Even Lord Ram has been enthroned, now Krishna Kanhaiya will also take his seat.”
The statement has fueled fears that Hindu nationalist forces, emboldened by the Supreme Court’s 2019 ruling that handed the Babri site to Hindus, are preparing to escalate demands for the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi (Kashi) and the Shahi Idgah mosque in Mathura.
Both are centuries-old sites now entangled in lawsuits filed by Hindu groups claiming they were built over demolished temples.
Modi’s government inaugurated a grand Ram temple at the Babri site in January 2024, presenting it as a symbol of “restoring Hindu pride.” Rights advocates argue the court ruling ignored a lack of historical evidence for a temple beneath the mosque and has instead legitimized the RSS’s campaign to erase Muslim heritage.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s ideological parent, has sought to frame the controversy as a matter of faith and “brotherhood.” RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat recently said the organization would not officially spearhead further temple movements but told volunteers they were free to join them.
He added that Muslim leaders should “let go” of Ayodhya, Kashi, and Mathura — a statement analysts say amounts to coercion for minorities to surrender their places of worship.
Legal scholars note that the Places of Worship Act of 1991 explicitly freezes the religious status of all sites as they stood in 1947, protecting mosques, churches, and temples from alteration. But ongoing court-ordered surveys of Gyanvapi and Mathura’s Idgah suggest the law is being sidestepped, raising fears that India’s judiciary is bending under Hindu nationalist pressure.
Analysts say the BJP’s endorsement of Hindutva preacher Baba Bageshwar’s rhetoric is not an isolated gesture but part of a larger Hindutva project. Alongside the Citizenship Amendment Act that excludes Muslims, bulldozer demolitions of Muslim homes, and anti-conversion laws, the mosque disputes deepen what activists describe as a systematic assault on India’s secular fabric.
Rights groups warn that global democracies must pay attention. They argue that the world’s largest democracy is normalizing majoritarian rule at the cost of its minorities, risking a repeat of the violence unleashed in Ayodhya three decades ago.
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