There are many religious places in our country. Of those, Char Dhams are considered the most important. One of the Char Dhams is located in Uttarakhand which is called Badrinath Dham. Now some clerics are claiming Badrinath to be a religious place for Muslims. If we look back in history, the mention of Badrinath Dham is found in sacred Hindu works such as Mahabharata.
Due to the presence of thick plum (Ber) forest in this area, the area was named Badri Van. Badrinath or Badrinarayan Temple is a temple situated on the banks of river Alaknanda in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand. It is believed that when Mother Ganga descended on the earth, the earth could not bear her strong flow. The stream of Mother Ganga divided into twelve water routes. One of them is the origin of Alaknanda.
When Lord Vishnu was searching for a suitable place for his meditation, he stumbled upon the said place near Alaknanda. Bhagwan Vishnu requested Maa Parvati for the place and was rightfully granted. Thus, it became Bhagwan Vishnu’s abode and was called ‘Badrinath’.
It is also believed that Maharishi Ved Vyas composed the Mahabharata in a cave here and this was his last stop before the Pandavas went to heaven. Not only this, but the credit of bringing the temple back to its form has also been an important contribution of Adi Shankaracharya and Rani Ahilyabai.
But now some fanatics of the country masquerading as clerics claim that this is not Badrinath temple, albeit it is Badrishah, a religious place for the Muslims, and it should be handed over to the Muslims. A video is going viral on social media platforms in which a particular bogus claim has been made.
Although the video is dated the Muslims in the region are using the fact that one of the first Aarti writers of the temple was a Muslim to extend their claim on the entire pious temple compounds. This is nothing but an example of how the population boom of a particular community compromises Hindu and Santan Dharam institutions in any part of the country.
Today, the truth of any person or class on social media cannot remain a veil for long! In some form or the other, it always comes out. The same is the case with clerics. A video has gone viral in which a cleric with a skull cap is seen claiming that, “Hindus have no knowledge of history…. It is not Badrinath but in the name of Badruddin Shah. Merely adding ‘Nath’ at the end of the name will not convert this place into a religious place for Hindus. It is a holy place for Muslims. It is our religious place, we will go and capture it.”
https://twitter.com/TejpalRawat14/status/1418951452412743685
Not only this, a few days ago it was claimed that some Muslims offered Namaz at some distance in Badrinath Dham, which was denied by the police in the investigation. After this controversy, the video has again reignited the
The purpose is clear that this centuries-old holy Dham was captured. It is well known that wherever these sects are in majority, they impose their will on the followers of other religions. The same is happening in some districts of Uttarakhand and this sect is slowly increasing its numbers at a rather alarming pace.
According to a 2015 report, the decadal growth rate of the Muslim community in Uttarakhand was around 2.5 times that of Hindus. At the time of the report, the population the Muslims in the state was at 13.9 per cent. Now with the kind of false bravado the cleric has shown in the video, it appears that these figures can be even higher.
Read more: Who wrote Aarti of Lord Badrinath? Badruddin or Vartwal?
To this, a Twitter user named Alok Bhatt remarked that every Pahari needed to counter the bogus claims of the cleric, whether the government reacts or not.
“Old video, nevertheless this represents the threat that our hills in particular and entire north in general face – onus to counter this and deal with it lies with us citizens- govt will help but demand has to come from society”
After the video surfaced, the long-pending demand for bringing ‘Land Law’ in Uttarakhand has intensified. Locals have been demanding land laws i.e. domicile law in the state for a long time. Only after the introduction of this law, the land and mountains and hill civilization of ‘Dev Bhoomi’ can be protected.
The members of the Land Ordinance Act Campaign Uttarakhand have demanded the state government make strict land laws in the state on the lines of Himachal Pradesh. To save the state from the clutches of Islamists and the Land mafias, the enactment of the Land laws is important, more so than ever.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has remarked that the government and the party will soon hold discussions regarding population control, migration and land laws. However, whether the discussions lead to any fruition would need to be seen.