Complaint against Bihar Muslim minister for visiting temple

A complaint petition was filed in a court in Bihar's Muzaffarpur against State Information Technology Minister Mohammad Israel Mansuri for visiting the Vishnupad temple in Gaya.

Muzaffarpur-based social activist Chandra Kishore Parashar filed the petition seeking registration of a first information report (FIR) against the minister for 'hurting religious sentiment of Hindus'.

"My client, in his complaint, said that the minister, being a Muslim, should not have visited the Vishnupad temple as only those who follow the Sanatana Dharma are allowed to visit it. The court will hear the matter on September 2," Parashar's lawyer Ravindra Kumar Singh said in Muzaffarpur on Wednesday.

Mansuri, a Pasmanda Muslim, had accompanied Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on his tour of Gaya earlier this week during which they offered prayers at the Vishnupad temple.

Bharatiya Janata Party leaders had fulminated, citing a notice board on the temple premises that says 'only followers of Sanatana Dharma' are allowed to enter.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expressed dismay over the controversy around Mansuri's visit to the temple and blamed the controversy on the 'divisive' politics of the BJP, his former ally.

"What is their grouse? Have their ministers not visited temples along with me?" asked the de facto Janata Dal-United leader while talking to reporters on Wednesday.

He nodded in approval when it was pointed out that Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, a senior BJP leader from the state, has been at many Hindu temples.