Swamy: Mosque isnt a religious place, can be demolished

Guwahati: BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has sparked off a massive controversy by saying that mosque is not a religious place but is merely a building that can be demolished any time. He was speaking at a function in Guwahati on Friday. A complaint under IPC sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) has been filed against the Supreme Court lawyer. Swamy repeated the same on Saturday at another function in Guwahati. “A mosque is not a religious place.

It is just a building. It can be demolished any time. If anyone disagrees with me on this, I am ready to have a debate on the issue. I got this information from people of Saudi Arabia,” he said. Swamy's remarks sparked protests in Assam. “Mosques are demolished periodically everywhere in the world. Even during the British era, mosques were demolished in India,” he said. Swamy has received brickbats from all political fronts, including his own party.

“It is a ploy to grab the headlines,” said Siddhartha Bhattacharjee, Assam's BJP president. “Every time he comes to the state, he makes such statements only to be in the news. I am sending video clippings of his statements to our national leadership. Whatever he said are his personal views.” Assam CM Tarun Gogoi said that Swamy was trying to create communal tensions before the state assembly elections.

"BJP will have to pay a heavy price for hurting Assamese sentiments," he said. Swamy on Sunday reportedly defended his controversial remark that mosque is not a religious place but just a building that can be demolished any time. Stressing that Islamic places of worship were demolished for public purposes in the British era, he said, "In our own experience, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had moved four masjids (mosques) out of the way of temples… and at that time the director responsible was a person called Mohammad, whom I recently honoured at a function in Kerala."