New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister President Akhilesh Yadav has stripped Samajwadi Party leader Ompal Nehra of minister of state status after his remarks asking Muslims to help build temples in Ayodhya and Mathura.
"Nehra has been sacked by the Chief Minister yesterday," SP spokesman and Cabinet Minister Rajendra Chowdhury told PTI today.
The action by Chief Minister, who is also the state president of ruling Samajwadi Party, came as the Ram temple issue came into renewed focus with two truck loads of stones for construction of the temple being brought to Ayodhya by Vishva Hindu Parishad.
Nehra said that he was informed by the DM about the latest development last evening.
"I said that since BJP doesn't have any issue in UP except Ram Mandir, then the issue should be closed once and for all. I said that secular leadership & Muslim intellectuals should come together and find a solution to this," he said.
Nehra had on December 23 suggested during a function that Muslims should come forward and help build temples at disputed sites in Ayodhya and Mathura, so that organisations like VHP lose their identity.
"Where can a Ram temple be built if not in Ayodhya? It is an emotional issue. In Mathura, where we worship Krishna, how can there be a mosque there. Muslims should think about it and in fact come forward for Kar Seva (voluntary work) and say build the temples at these places. We should not fall in their (VHP's) trap," Nehra has said in Bijnore.
The minister was referring to a controversy over the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) gathering truckloads of stones for a temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya where the 16th century Babri mosque was razed on December 6, 1992.
The VHP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have led a decades-old campaign for a temple at the site that they believe was the birthplace of Hindu god Ram.
