Controversy over depiction of 'aarti' on MP Govt's website

Bhopal, Aug 7 (UNI) A controversy over the depiction of 'aarti' on the Madhya Pradesh Government's official website broke out with the Congress describing the new look of the website disrespected the secular principles laid down in the Constitution.

School Education Minister Narottam Mishra said the criticism proved that the Congress -- which utilised Devsthan Fund over mosques and churches -- could go to any extent to please its president Sonia Gandhi.

''It's sad that the Congress is opposed to depicting 'aartis' on a website,'' he said, alleging that the Congress raised irrelevant issues to divert attention from internal fighting in that party..

He said that the 'aarti' at various temples, including the Mahakal temple, was our spiritual heritage. He asked what was wrong in depicting 'aartis' over the website during the holy 'Shravan' month.

In a statement here today, Congress General Secretary Manak Agrawal and Syed Sajjid Ali besides Mr Tejandra Singh Saluja (for Sikh community) and Saji Abraham (for Christian community) alleged that the new website design disrespected the secular principles enshrined in the Constitution.

They said if the government believed in 'Sarva Dharma (positive secularism)', it must depict teachings and programmes of other religions as well.

The statement alleged that the state government -- which was filled with the Hindutva ideology of the RSS -- was bent on saffronising the state. Earlier, it had incorporated 'Upnayan Sanskar' and had passed the Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act in a bid to curb religious freedom of people.

They added that the Congress would launch an agitation if the government continued to take such steps.

UNI PKJ-PS 2145