New Delhi: A model of the planned Kedarnath temple, painted in grey and encased in a glass box, rests on a black pillar. Beside it is a huge portrait of the original Kedarnath temple in Uttarakhand.
The similarities between the two are striking, except that the upcoming temple in Delhi’s Burari will have stairs leading to it and no snow-covered mountains in the background.
The model and the portrait are kept in the one-room office of Shri Kedarnath Dham Delhi Trust on the 3-acre site where the temple is to be built.
“This is the model of the Kedarnath temple that will be built in Delhi. There is a difference between the original temple and the upcoming one in Delhi. In the upcoming temple in Delhi, there will be a basement, stairs, and even the stones being used in the construction are different. Also, we don’t have the Jyotirlinga,” said Jitender Fulara, who says he is one of 250 trustees of the upcoming temple and a member of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Fulara also claims he is a former incharge of the AAP’s Chhattisgarh unit.
An orange-white tent remains perched on wooden pillars, and a board displaying the list of invitees still hangs at the entrance, giving the impression that the lush green Kedarnath temple site in Burari is yet to move beyond the foundation-laying ceremony.
The temple has been enveloped in controversy since Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami performed the Bhoomi Pujan and laid the foundation stone for it in Burari’s Hiranki area on 10 July.
There are a total of 12 Jyotirlingas across India — revered shrines dedicated to Lord Shiva. Kedarnath is the northernmost and also part of the Char Dham pilgrimage circuit in Uttarakhand.
The priests at the temple in Kedarnath had been protesting until Tuesday over their belief that using the Jyotirlinga’s name for a replica temple for “commercial purposes” was unacceptable to them.
However, the protest was put on hold after a meeting with Dhami, where a consensus was reached on changing the name of the trust. The process of changing the name of the trust has begun, the Burari-based trust confirmed to ThePrint.
As reported by ThePrint, the trust in a bid to placate priests miffed with the project, had said Wednesday it would replace the word ‘Dham’ with ‘temple’ in its name.
“There was confusion. The priests in Kedarnath thought that we were building a Dham in Delhi. A Dham can never be created. We are only building a temple,” said Surinder Rautela, founder-president of the trust.
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‘Unless they don’t give in writing’
But, the anger among priests in Kedarnath hasn’t subsided. They told ThePrint that while they have put their agitation on hold for now, they are planning to hold a meeting in a few days, after which they will write to Chief Minister Dhami and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Unless they don’t give us in writing that the Kedarnath won’t be created in Delhi. We will keep agitating,” said Acharya Santosh Trivedi, a priest at the Kedarnath shrine.
Trivedi said that changing the trust’s name from Dham to temple wasn’t their demand. “Our demand was that the word Kedarnath should be removed and the temple structure should be different. But what we are hearing is that the temple is being built on similar lines to that of Kedar Baba and we won’t tolerate this insult,” Trivedi told ThePrint.
He added that the temple in Delhi would tamper with the sanctity of the original one in Uttarakhand.
Another priest, Umesh Posti, who has been at the forefront of the protest in Kedarnath, said that they don’t mind the creation of a Shivalya or a Shiv Mandir but the Kedarnath cannot be replicated.
“Our agitation has not ended. It has only been put on hold for some time. We will ensure that Kedarnath is not replicated in Delhi,” said Posti.
He claimed that Dhami had given them an assurance that the name of Kedarnath will be removed and the structure will also be changed.
“We are now demanding the CM to give us these things in writing, otherwise we will start the agitation again,” said Posti.
The priests also told ThePrint that the narrative that the weak, infirm and old can visit Kedarnath in Delhi was misplaced.
“But Shiva is in Kedar. The sense of accomplishment people feel after reaching the heights won’t be felt in Delhi, and also, the peace and God’s blessing will only be felt at Kedar, where Shiva himself resides,” said Posti.
Underground parking, donations via QR
At the entrance of the proposed temple in Delhi’s Burari, a board displaying the names of the invitees also features their mugshots – from BJP MPs Manoj Tiwari, Bansuri Swaraj, Ajay Tamta, and Yogender Chandolia to AAP MLAs Sharad Chauhan and Sanjeev Jha – leaders from across the political spectrum were invitees to the event.
While Tiwari, Tamta and others attended, Swaraj couldn’t make it due to a personal emergency, according to the trustees.
One of the trustees said the temple will be constructed with a tentative budget of Rs 20 crore. They have also generated a QR code in the name of the trust to facilitate online payments as contributions for the temple.
“There will be underground parking for the visitors to the temple. We have hired a company which is working on the blueprint of the temple and making some amendments,” said another trustee, wishing anonymity.
The trust has also created a Facebook Page with one post that reads: “Delhi mei bas raha hai Kedarnath, ab har mausam mei baba kedar ke darshan honge sambhav (Kedarnath is coming to Delhi, now one can visit Baba Kedar every season.) This Facebook post alludes to the fact that Kedarnath Dham remains closed for six months due to harsh snowfall.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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