NEW DELHI: Supreme Court Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, who initiated the petition in the Varanasi Gyanvapi Mosque case, made sensational revelations related to the case during his address at the Western Ghat Lit Fest on October 28, leaving the audience in awe.
Jain received resounding applause from the audience when he boldly predicted a triumph in the effort to reclaim the Gyanvapi mosque. He stated, “We are on the verge of victory in the Gyanvapi mosque case the moment ASI files its report.”
The New Indian is the official media partner of the festival, which has attracted scholars and writers to share their perspectives on India’s history and contemporary religious landscape.
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The ASI report, detailing the findings from the survey of the mosque in Varanasi, is set to be made public on November 2. The advocate used diagrams to explain to the audience how the positioning of ‘Nandi’ was exactly 83 feet away from the Shivling found in the Wazu tank system on the mosque premises, the first indication of the mosque’s construction as an encroachment on Hindu beliefs.
Jain also mentioned a Varanasi family that was mysteriously displaced from Gyanvapi in 1993, suggesting the involvement of authorities in covering up the matter. He criticised former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Yadav for the eviction.
In a powerful speech, Jain recalled the moment he discovered the ‘Shivling’ inside the Wazu tank while visiting the mosque with his legal team and said, “At that point, we decided that this is the last day when they are doing wazu on our deity.”
He further reminisced about the moment how he momentarily forgot his profession upon seeing the deity and began chanting ‘Har Har Mahadev.’
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Jain also recounted how media scrutiny intensified when his father, Advocate Harishankar Jain, fell ill during the case. He described the time when the media camped outside the ICU to confirm his father’s health status.
Shankar went on to explain how Muslims initially resisted the survey, citing the presence of fish in a section of Gyanvapi as a reason not to excavate. Eventually, the court ordered the Varanasi administration to provide external oxygen to ensure the fish’s survival while the excavation continued to uncover the truth about Gyanvapi.
The discovery of the ‘Shivling’ led to a petition describing it as a male organ and a risqué and explicit fountain with ugly vivid descriptions.
Jain, the petitioner, deemed the ‘Places of Worship Act’ unconstitutional and declared, “What is written in the ‘Places of Worship Act’ is wrong. It should be repealed.”
He asserted that the site was a temple until 1993, two years after the enactment of the Places of Worship Act in 1991, making it ineligible for alteration.