Akhara Parishad chief slams 'politicisation' of gold plating of Kedarnath temple walls

Dehradun: Accusing political parties of trying to politicise the issue of gold plating the inner walls of Kedarnath temple, Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad (ABAP) on Thursday said the work on upgrading the temple walls was being carried out with transparency.

In response to allegations of a multi-crore scam in the gold plating of the Kedarnath sanctum sanctorum, ABAP president Mahant Ranvidra Puri, in a video message, said casting doubts on the upgradation work underway at the temple was "meaningless".

"We condemn parties trying to politicise the issue. Casting doubts on the decoration of the temple, which has been carried out by a devotee from Maharashtra and the Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee with total transparency, is meaningless," Puri said.

"The Char Dham Yatra is underway. Kedarnath is the most revered jyotirlinga located in North India. Political parties should desist from hurting the sentiments of devotees by expressing doubts on the fairness with which the upgradation work was done at the temple," he said.

A controversy erupted when a video surfaced online recently in which a senior priest of the Kedarnath temple is heard claiming that there was a multi-crore scam in the gold plating of the shrine's inner walls. The Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee has dismissed such claims saying a "misleading" campaign is being run on social media.

Senior priest Santosh Trivedi alleged that the temple's sanctum sanctorum has been covered with brass plates in the name of gold plating, claiming it is a "Rs 125 crore scam".

Trivedi, who is also the vice president of the Teerth Purohit Mahapanchayat, also threatened to launch an agitation if those involved in the scam were not brought to book.

The opposition has lapped up the issue with former Congress state president Ganesh Godiyal demanding an SIT probe into the alleged scam.

State BJP spokesperson Suresh Joshi said it is a misleading campaign by the Congress to doubt the process of gold plating. "Gold plating is always done across the country with copper plates as the base," he said.

The donor who carried out the gold plating at Kedarnath also did the gold plating at Badrinath temple in 2005 when the Congress was in power, he said.

"In 2005 they did not find anything objectionable. Why now? It is a politics of false propaganda. In their bid to oppose Hindutva, Congress is now involving Lord Kedar. He will not forgive the party for what it has done. It should apologise to the country and to the devotees of Lord Kedar," the BJP leader said.