New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Culture on Sunday passed orders to the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) to initiate the iconography and excavation of the Hindi deities in the historic Qutub Minar in the national capital.
This move by the Central government came after ASI’s ex-regional director Dharamveer Sharma had claimed that the Qutub Minar was not built by Qutb al-Din Aibak, but by Raja Vikramaditya to study the direction of the sun.
Along with the Qutub Minar, other constructions in the vicinity including the Anangtal and Lalkot Fort have also been ordered to be excavated. As per the received information, the excavation will begin from the south of Qutub Minar and at a distance of 15 meters from the mosque.
Before the orders for excavation were passed, Culture Secretary Govind Singh Mohan paid a visit to the monument with a team of 12 officers including three historians, four ASI officers, and investigation officers. The ASI officials on the team clarified that the excavation of the monument was conducted earlier in the year 1991 and this will be the second time that it will be excavated.
Apart from Dharamveer Sharma, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) spokesman Vinod Bansal had claimed that Qutub Minar was actually a 'Vishnu Stambh' and that the foreign Islamic invaders had demolished dozens of Jain-Hindu temples and built a mosque there.
Moreover, the Supreme Court had received a petition to move the Lord Ganesha idol kept in Qutub Minar to another place, though it had banned any kind of tampering with its verdict. Some right-wing parties have also been organising protests in front of the Qutub Minar in the recent past as the Gyanvpi mosque issue continues to brew. Some party workers had also chanted the Hanuman Chalisa in front of the monument amid the loudspeaker row that erupted earlier this month.
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