MP minister Prahlad Patel: ASI’s findings on Gyanvapi will get global acceptance

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh minister Prahlad Patel said the ASI’s findings about the Gyanvapi mosque will be accepted by the country and the world, referring to the claim by the lawyer representing Hindu petitioners that the mosque was built by demolishing a temple.

MP’s Panchayat Rural Development and Labor Minister told reporters in Jabalpur that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which surveyed the mosque on the instructions of the Supreme Court, is famous not only in the country but across the world.

He said on Friday, “If anyone does the work of looking at history through the prism of history, it is ASI. Therefore, the country and the world will accept its facts. The ASI report presented before the court will add to everyone’s knowledge.”

Patel, who is a former Union Minister of Tourism and Culture, said that retired ASI officers go abroad for archaeological conservation and research work.

He stressed that ASI has an important contribution to the archeology of the world.

The minister said the ASI expert involved in the Ram Janmabhoomi case was an eminent archaeologist.

Earlier, counsel for the Hindu petitioners in the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi case had claimed that the ASI’s scientific survey report showed that the mosque was built on the remains of a pre-existing temple.

Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain made the claim after the court provided copies of the 839-page report to the parties concerned late Thursday evening.

Jain said the report makes it clear that the mosque, which is located next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple, was built on the remains of a grand Hindu temple after it was demolished during the reign of Aurangzeb in the 17th century.