Lucknow: Gyanvapi mosque panel embarks on a campaign to restore communal harmony

Lucknow: The Anjuman Intezamia Mosque Committee, which manages the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, is embarking on a campaign to reach out to eminent Hindu priests and social personalities to engage in a dialogue with them to revive the "syncretic culture" of the city that it says has taken a backseat in the course of the legal tussle over the mosque, and to maintain communal harmony.

The mosque committee said it will not discuss the ongoing case being fought in the Varanasi courts and the Allahabad HC concerning the demands of the Hindu litigants to worship before goddess Shringar Gauri in the mosque premises for ascertaining whether the mosque stood on a pre-existing temple ..

"When we reach out to them, it will create an atmosphere of brotherhood and dilute whatever bitterness has set in between the two communities over the course of the legal tussle. There will not be any discussions about the case; the aim is just to revive the tana-bana or Ganga-Jamuni culture and preserve communal harmony," SM Yaseen, joint secretary of the committee, told ET. Yaseen said the committee has planned to meet the mahant of the Sankat Mochan temple in Varanasi, Vishwambhar Nath Mishra, Swami Avimukteshwarananda, Satua Baba and others.