On Friday, Dr KK Muhammed, the former regional director of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), who was one of the archaeologists who had unearthed a temple beneath the controversial Babri Masjid stated that it was easy to convince a dacoit but it is impossible to convince a communist.
The BJP govt was of no help. I then convinced the dreaded dacoit Nirbhay Gujjar to respect our heritage & allow me to protect it. He relented, and I was able to reconstruct as many as 80 temples. You can convince a dacoit but never a communist, says Dr KK Muhammed at @mlrlitfest. pic.twitter.com/l8RG78yiYN
— Anand Ranganathan (@ARanganathan72) November 29, 2019
Speaking at the second edition of the Mangaluru Literature Festival on the ‘Idea of Bharat’, former archaeologist Dr KK Muhammad shared his anecdotes during his days at the Archaeological Survey of India. Dr KK Muhammed spoke about how he was successful in convincing a dreaded dacoit of the Chambal valley to not only allow him to rebuild temples but also how he motivated the dacoit to take up the cause of temple restoration.
“During one of our projects to restore temples in the Chambal valley that had been ravaged in the past, I came across a dreaded dacoit named Nirbhay Singh Gujjar, who helped me to rebuild around 80 temples in areas around Bhatukeshwar and Bhojpur in Madhya Pradesh,” said Muhammed.
He added, “The BJP govt was of no help. I then convinced the dreaded dacoit Nirbhay Gujjar to respect our heritage and allow me to protect it. He relented, and I was able to reconstruct as many as 80 temples. You can convince a dacoit but never a communist.”
Narrating the incident, Muhammed also said how he was successful in convincing the dreaded dacoit of the Chambal valley to take up the cause of restoration of dozens of temples in the area built during the reign of Gurjara Pratiharas.
Dr KK Muhammed’s statements came as a response to the continuous interference of the left-wing ideologues and self-proclaimed communist historians in the Ram Mandir case. The left-wing historians had time and again attempted to debunk the ASI reports that had suggested that there was a temple beneath the controversial mosque at Ayodhya.
Even several times in the past, the former archaeologist had alleged that Left historians like Irfan Habib and Romila Thapar had thwarted attempts to arrive at a resolution to the Babri Masjid issue.
KK Muhammed was a part of the team of archaeologists which had carried out the first excavation at the site in 1976-77 that had unearthed 12 pillars of a Hindu temple at Babri Masjid site.
Dr Mohammed had said that communists did not want the Ayodhya issue to be settled and it was they who stopped Muslim organisations from handing over the disputed land to Hindus.
“The Babri issue would have been settled long ago if the Muslim intelligentsia had not fallen prey to the brainwashing by the Leftist historians. A set of historians including Romila Thapar, Bipin Chandra and S Gopal argued that there was no mention of the dismantling of the temple before 19th century and Ayodhya is Bhudhist-Jain centre. They were supported by historians Irfan Habib, RS Sharma, DN Jha, Suraj Ben and Akthar Ali,” Dr KK Muhammed had stated in the past.
Dr KK Muhammed also expressed his disappointment over the reluctance of the BJP government in conserving and promoting Indian culture and heritage. “We expected so much from the nationalist BJP govt when it came to power, but it has been six years and they have not done anything. So much of our culture and heritage lies in utter neglect. In fact, Congress was better because at least they didn’t interfere,” said Dr KK Muhammed.
“If after giving away Pakistan, India is still secular it’s because of the tolerance of the Hindu majority!”, KK Muhammad pic.twitter.com/2YDQq4x6Zd
— MALAVIKA AVINASH (@MALAVIKAAVINASH) November 29, 2019
Speaking at the literature festival, KK Muhammed also said that if Lord Rama is not part of Muslims culture in the country, he was not a perfect Muslim. “Let me be clear, India is secular only because it is a Hindu majority nation, said Dr KK Muhammed.
