Puri: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Cheif and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi has again landed in controversy for his religious statements.
This time his speech is targeted at Puri’s Jagannath Temple. However, strongly opposing the MP’s remark, Jagannath Sena, a socio-political outfit in Puri, lodged a complaint with the Singhadwar Police Station against him.
The Muslim leader courted controversy after he claimed that the centuries-old Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri was built over a Buddhist monument. He asserted so at a public meeting in Surat last month.
Addressing a rally in Bhiwandi, Maharashtra last month, Owaisi had said, “Swami Vivekananda has written in a book that the Jagannath Temple was constructed after razing a Buddhist worship place.”
The statement drew sharp reactions from the frinze political outfit amid Gyanvapi mosque row.
Speaking to reporters in this regard, Jagannath Sena convener Priyadarshan Pattnaik said, “Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi is a vicious person. He wants people to indulge in confrontation over religion. According to historians, the Jagannath Temple has been transformed gradually since the era of Indradyumna till Chodagangadeva.”
“The Srimandir was built before birth of Lord Budhha. He is not the incarnation of God,” he said denying the claim over presence of Buddhists here.
