India: Far Right group Dharam Jagaran Samanvay Sangh in Agra Burns Down Houses over Interfaith Elopment

 

India: IPS officer in Agra transferred for shutting down RSS shakha

National Herald

Agra: IPS officer transferred for shutting down RSS shakha, Yogi’s hand suspected

Aas Mohd Kaif Updated: Jun 27th 2018, 08.54 PM

 

NH photo

IPS officer Kunwar Anupam Singh, who was transferred for taking action against an RSS shakha

The IPS officer, who had shut down the RSS shakha that was being held on a disputed land, was transferred by the authorities after complaints from BJP legislators

The people who had raised a hue-and-cry over the transfer of IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal during the previous regime are now silent. An Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, who had shut down an Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) shakha being held on a disputed land, has been transferred by the government following complaints from BJP MLAs.
In Tajganj area of Agra, Uttar Pradesh, there prevails a tension between the two communities, with each claiming ownership of a particular plot of land. Six months ago, the permission to hold Urs celebrations on this plot was not granted. This land lies close to a mazaar. Police forces have been deputed here since.
A month ago, RSS activists started holding shakhas here. Tension between the two communities started to get worse since. Last week on Wednesday, police prohibited the shakha from going ahead, saying the matter of ownership of the land was subjudice. The decision was taken by the local police station incharge, Rajkumar Yadav.
Immediately after that, the BJP MLAs reached the plot and started a dharna against the police. They went to the kotwal, Shailendra Singh, to register their complaint but he also supported his police station in charge. Later, SP (city) Kunwar Anupam Singh, supported the police action and praised the forces for being impartial in establishing law and order.

But the local police faced the music for their impartiality. SP (city) Kunwar Anupam Singh has been transferred. Kotwal Shailendra Singh and the local police station in charge, Rajkumar Yadav, too, have been given their transfer orders. Sources say that the action was taken after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s personal intervention. The opposition is surprisingly quiet

After the episode, Agra has been on tenterhooks. On the evening of June 18, RSS workers held a shakha in Pawandham Colony, which was attended by 68 swayamsewaks. According to the head of publicity department of the RSS, “The local police station incharge threw away the saffron flag  and said that we are grooming terrorists here. Such insult did not take place even during the SP, BSP or Congress regimes.”
According to Congress’ local president, Haji Jamiluddin, “Some anti-social elements have been trying to occupy the land of the dargah of Kareel wale Baba. The police force have been deputed here for six months. First the Urs programme, and then RSS shakha was stopped here by the administration. After that, all the three police officials were removed for taking impartial action.”
Before this, the MLA from south Agra, Yogendra Upadhyay, and Sikri MLA Udaybhan Singh met the chief minister on this issue. After the meeting, they blamed SP (city) Kunwar Anupam Singh for supporting the local police.
It is important to note that RSS workers have started holding shakhas here only recently. After the meeting of MLAs with the chief minister, the order for removing the SP (city) was issued from Lucknow.
Young Kunwar Anupam Singh has a reputation of being a strict, honest and an impartial police officer.
The leader of Samajwadi Party in Agra, Nadeem Mansoori, said that it was a matter of repressing the morale of the police officers who are impartial and honest. According to ADGP, Agra, Ajay Anand, transfer is part of normal police functioning. “It can’t be seen in context of a particular incident,” he said.
Sources say that RSS is still holding shakhas on that disputed land under tight security cover.

(Translated into English by Pragati Saxena).

India: Busting the myths and and propaganda regarding Taj Mahal propagated by the Hindutva right wing

The Times of India

Busting the Taj fake news

Manimugdha S Sharma | TNN | Oct 22, 2017, 04:00 IST

(Image courtesy: Getty)

First it was UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath saying the Taj Mahal didn't reflect Indian culture. 

Then, UP Tourism removed the 17th-century monument from a tourist booklet. Sardhana MLA Sangeet Som went on to call it a "blot on India" and another senior BJP leader, Vinay Katiyar, shared the 'Taj-is-a-Hindu-temple' story. With so many controversies, perhaps it's worthwhile to bust some myths surrounding the Taj.

The hands of Taj's workers were cut off

A popular tale about the Taj that crops up in the stories of local guides in Agra and on various Right-wing websites says that after the Taj was finished, Shah Jahan ordered his soldiers to cut off the hands of the master masons so that they could never replicate the wonder.

This story contrasts with available evidence and a vast settlement called Taj Ganj that still exists today. It was set up by Emperor Shah Jahan to house the thousands of masons, artisans and other workers who had assembled from the distant parts of his empire. The descendants of those workers still live there and practise the skills of their forefathers.

The fact remains that after finishing the Taj, Shah Jahan's workers built for him a whole new imperial city called Shahjahanabad in Delhi. It would have been well nigh impossible to maim thousands of expert artisan and find replacements to work on another equally grand project in such a short time.

It was originally Tejo Mahalaya

Another story in circulation is that the Taj Mahal and Red Fort had been built by Hindu kings. In fact, the RSS mouthpiece, Organiser, had once published an article to theorise this, much to the chagrin of Right-leaning historian R C Majumdar who, according to historian Irfan Habib, refused to write for it ever again for publishing such "nonsense".

But facts have never come in the way of a good Taj story as a former Indian National Army propaganda officer Purshottam Nagesh Oak showed. In a 1989 book, Oak, who worked with the I&B ministry after Independence, claimed that Taj Mahal was a corruption of Tejo Mahalaya, an ancient Shiva temple that was made into a Muslim tomb. Oak cited things like Hindu motifs in the building and the absence of the name Taj Mahal in Mughal records to build a castle in thin air. Historians point out that Taj was never called that in the Mughal period but Rauza-i-Munavvara, or that Mughal buildings have traditionally had Hindu motifs. They dismissed Oak as a "mythistorian".

The British wanted to dismantle the Taj
This myth arose in the first half of the 19th century during the tenure of Governor General Lord William Bentinck, best known to Indians as the man who abolished Suttee. So, how did this myth come about?

In 1830, Bentinck had undertaken an expedition to North India, which brought him to Agra. There, he found the building that once housed the royal hammam (Mughal bath) in a decrepit condition. The bath had been earlier removed by Governor General Lord Hastings in 1815, as he thought it was the only way to save it. Bentinck felt the same way and ordered the marble there to be sold off piecemeal. A rumour soon spread in military circles that Bentinck wanted to dismantle and sell off the Taj. This gossip soon reached Calcutta, the British capital, where the story was further embellished upon in the English-language press.

This soon became a theory that made its appearance in art historian E B Havell's 1908 work, Indian Sculpture and Painting. G T Garratt in his The Legacy of India (1937) and H G Rawlinson in his British Achievement in India (1948) repeated it.

Historian Percival Spear not only demolished this myth in 1949 but also explained why Bentinck was demonised. He had revoked the half-batta that the officer corps of the East India Company's armies had been getting even while being stationed in cantonments. The army saw it as an attack on its privileges. So, to get back at the governor general, he was slighted, both directly and indirectly, when he visited Agra.

India: Men from Adityanath's Hindu Yuva Vahini chant Shiva chalisa on Taj Mahal premises; removed by cops

Hindustan Times

Hindu youths chant Shiva chalisa on Taj Mahal premises

 

The youths, belonging to Rashtra Swabhimaan Dal (RSD) and Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV), were taken away by CISF personnel and released after they submitted a written apology. india Updated: Oct 23, 2017 18:41 IST

Hemendra Chaturvedi
Hindustan Times, Agra

The youths claimed the Taj Mahal was originally a Shiva temple by the name Tejomalaya, which was demolished to build the monument.(HT PHOTO)

 

A dozen youths belonging to Hindu outfits were caught reciting ‘Shiva Chalisa (hymn)’ on the premises of the Taj Mahal, causing tension at the iconic monument, which, they claimed, was originally a Shiv temple.
The youths, belonging to Rashtra Swabhimaan Dal (RSD) and Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV), were taken away by CISF personnel and released after they submitted a written apology.
The incident comes a week after controversial BJP MLA Sangeet Som questioned the Taj Mahal’s place in history, saying that the iconic monument was built by ‘traitors’ who targeted Hindus.
His comments caused a political stir across the country following which the BJP governments in UP and the Centre distanced themselves from the MLA’s comments.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath is slated to visit Taj on October 26 to review various schemes related to tourism in Agra.

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Deepak Sharma (30) of RSD, who led the group of youths on Monday, justified the act, saying it was natural to recite ‘Shiv Chalisa’ on Monday, it being day of Lord Shiva and that Taj Mahal originally was a Shiva temple.
“It was basically ‘Tejomalaya’, a Shiva temple, which was demolished by Mughal rulers to make the Taj Mahal,” he said.
“I was accompanied by some other RSD activists and those from Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV), including the Aligarh unit president of HYV, Bharat Goswami,” he said.
Sharma is from Hathras near Agra but has been active in Delhi after completing his post-graduation. He is not new to controversies and claimed that he had blackened the face of noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan after he advocated a referendum in Jammu and Kashmir.
“We did nothing wrong but apologised in writing because we were told by CISF officials that recital of ‘Shiva Chalisa’ was in violation of the Supreme Court orders. We respect the Supreme Court and had no intention to hurt religious feeling of any sect,” Sharma said.
“We plan to file a PIL in the apex court to find an answer as to why Hindus are not allowed to recite ‘Shiv Chalisa’ at the Taj, the building of which is owned by central government, when Muslims can offer namaz there,” he added.

India: Just as in Kashmir, Policemen and institions of state are assaulted in UP -- by goons of BJP, Bajrang Dal, VHP and others from the Hindutva circuit

http://www.abplive.in/videos/bajrang-dal-workers-attack-agra-police-station-to-rescue-5-519329

Bajrang Dal men attack police station in Uttar Pradesh, thrash cop and
burn police vehicle to rescue 5 supporters
By JKR Staff - April 23, 2017
http://www.jantakareporter.com/india/bajrang-dal-police-station-agra/118305/

Mob incited by MP attacked my house, terrorized my kids: Saharanpur SSP
Pankul Sharma | TNN | Apr 22, 2017
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bareilly/mob-incited-by-mp-attacked-my-house-terrorized-my-kids-saharanpur-ssp/articleshow/58319887.cms

VHP, BJP activists slap dy SP in Agra
http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31804&articlexml=Mob-incited-by-BJP-MP-attacked-my-house-23042017013029

India: Editorials in Times of India and Indian Express re central minister's endorsement of Agra hate speech: VHP, BJP leaders booked

Editorials from The Times of India and the Indian Express followed by a news report

1. EDITORIALS

The Times of India (March 2, 2016)

Say no to hate: Ruckus ensues over minister Katheria, BJP must rein in hatemongers
March 2, 2016, 3:22 am IST TOI Edit in TOI Editorials | Edit Page | TOI

Ram Shankar Katheria, Smriti Irani’s deputy in HRD ministry and BJP MP from Agra, has denied making inflammatory anti-Muslim remarks at a condolence meeting in the city for VHP worker Arun Mahaur where Muslims were equated by some speakers to “demons”, “descendants of Ravana” and warned of a “final battle”. However, according to reports backed by audiotapes, Katheria exhorted the crowd in Hindi, arguing that “we have to make ourselves powerful” and that “before another is lost, we must show such strength that these killers themselves disappear”.

With both houses of Parliament repeatedly disrupted and the opposition demanding his resignation for what Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav called “inflammatory remarks”, the minister has done a number of flip-flops. At first, on Monday, Katheria defended his remarks, saying that Arun Mahaur was murdered in broad daylight, that there was “too much anger among the Hindu community” and that the “protests will continue until we get justice”. On Tuesday, though, he insisted that “what has been published in newspapers” as his speech is “completely wrong” and that he didn’t name “any community” and only said that the killers “should be hanged”.

No one had the right to kill Arun Mahaur. His killing deserves the greatest condemnation, the guilty must be brought to justice and punished. The police have arrested five Muslim youth on charges of murder and rioting. Equally, no one has the right to take the law into their own hands, deliver mob justice or start communal riots. Yet, several BJP leaders at this condolence meeting, where about 5,000 people attended, seemed to urge this path. “If you want to test Hindus, then let’s decide a date,” BJP’s Fatehpur Sikri MP Babu Lal is reported to have said at the meeting.

With assembly elections due in 2017, politics in Uttar Pradesh is entering a trying phase. After the Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013, the last thing India needs is more communal violence. It is incumbent on all political parties to behave responsibly. Law and order is a state responsibility and lapses need to be debated and politically challenged, not responded to with threats of violence. BJP must rein in errant local leaders. It is time for all sides to urge restraint, or we risk opening up dangerous social fault lines again.

o o

The Indian Express (March 2, 2016)

Peddling hate
Central minister’s endorsement of the VHP’s call to arms is disturbing.
By: Express News Service
Published:Mar 2, 2016, 0:03

Last Thursday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told Parliament that hate speech does not constitute free speech. He made the observation while defending the human resource development ministry’s role in the Rohith Vemula case and the JNU arrests. Three days later, the minister of state for HRD, Ram Shankar Katheria, was present at a VHP meeting called to condole the murder of one of its activists in Agra, where speaker after speaker urged Hindus to “corner Muslims and destroy the demons”. The minister said his official position would not stop him from taking to the streets for the purpose. Katheria has since clarified that he did not name any community in his speech, and the party seems satisfied with his explanation.

Unlike Jaitley, this newspaper believes that the right to free speech includes even hate speech as long as it is not an incitement to violence. But the Agra meet was a call to arms. Speakers threatened to turn Agra into a Muzaffarnagar, recalling the anti-Muslim riots in the town in the run-up to the 2014 general elections. The tone and tenor of the speeches were ominous. The BJP may argue that the VHP is an autonomous organisation that does not take orders from the party; it can’t be held responsible for the actions of fringe sections of the Sangh Parivar. But in this case, several BJP legislators attended the meet and a Central minister endorsed the call to aggression; BJP MP from Fatehpur Sikri, Babulal, called for an open fight with Muslims. The VHP now threatens to hold similar condolence meetings in every village in the Braj region. Local BJP leaders have endorsed the move, which is likely to polarise people along communal lines. With UP set for assembly elections next year, the tactic is obvious. In fact, the local MLA said in as many words that Hindus needed to show their strength — with rifles and knives — as the assembly election approaches. A polarising agenda may yield votes in the short run, but it can rupture the social fabric for a long time. The BJP brass must restrain its leaders from backing the VHP agenda, which can have disastrous consequences for UP’s composite society.

Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav bet on new investment to revive the economy. No policy intervention can attract investment in the absence of social peace. And, voters tend to penalise governments that fail to facilitate growth.

o o o

2.

The Indian Express

Agra hate speech: VHP, BJP leaders booked
Three persons named in the FIR are VHP’s Agra district general secretary Ashok Lavania, BJP corporator and party’s Braj Region unit vice-president Kundanika Sharma and one Prashant Chowdhary.


By: Express News Service | Lucknow | Published:March 2, 2016 12:11 am

TWO DAYS after Union minister of state and BJP MP Ramshankar Katheria delivered a hate speech against Muslims in Agra, the police on Tuesday lodged an FIR against VHP and BJP leaders on charges of hurting religious feelings and promoting enmity.

Last Sunday, Muslims were equated to “demons” and “descendants of Ravana”, and warned of a “final battle”, as the Sangh Parivar held a condolence meeting in Agra for VHP district vice-president Arun Mahaur, who was shot dead by some Muslim youths on February 24. Among those present on the dais were Katheria, the Agra MP, as well as BJP’s Fatehpur Sikri MP Babu Lal, apart from other local leaders, who joined in the threats to Muslims.

Three persons named in the FIR are VHP’s Agra district general secretary Ashok Lavania, BJP corporator and party’s Braj Region unit vice-president Kundanika Sharma and one Prashant Chowdhary.

The FIR was lodged on the complaint of Sub-Inspector Anil Kumar at Loha Mandi police station. Kumar, who is in-charge of Japraus police outpost, has stated in his complaint that he was present at Sunday’s meeting.

“Kumar has submitted a report stating that he was present at the meeting where the three named accused and others made objectionable speeches. On the basis of the report, an FIR has been lodged… We will obtain video footage of the meeting to identity other persons present there…,” ASP (Agra city) Ghule Sushil Chandrabhan said.

Loha Mandi Station House Officer and investigating officer of the case, Harendra Pal Singh, said those named in the FIR have been booked under sections 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) of the IPC.

When contacted, Anil Kumar said the FIR has been filed on the basis of the video footage of the meeting.
- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/lucknow/agra-hate-speech-vhp-bjp-leaders-booked/

India: Church vandalised in Agra

Indian Today

Church vandalised in Agra
IndiaToday.in Agra, April 16, 2015 | UPDATED 13:16 IST


A church in the Cantonment area here was allegedly vandalised by unknown miscreants in the wee hours on Thursday, triggering outrage among the members of the local Christian community.

According to police, alleged miscreants vandalised St Mary's Church in Agra Cantonment's Pratabpura area in what is the latest in a spate of attacks on such institutions across the country.

An FIR has been registered at Rakabganj police station against unknown persons, they said, adding that two statues on the church premises were found damaged along with its main gate.

District and police officials reached the church in the morning to review security arrangements, police said.

Meanwhile, Christian community leaders in Agra are furious over the incident and have demanded firm action against the culprits within 24 hours.

Last month, an elderly nun was allegedly gangraped at a convent school in West Bengal by miscreants who also looted cash from its lockers. Two Bangladeshi nationals have been arrested in connection with the March 14 incident.

A cathedral premises and a missionary school where people had gathered for a religious convention were vandalised allegedly by Hindu activists in Jabalpur of Madhya Pradesh on March 20. Six persons allegedly belonging to a right-wing Hindu group were apprehended over the incident but were later let off on bail.



Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/church-vandalised-in-agra/1/430437.html

India: Forced conversion organised by Hindu far right groups Dharm Jagran Samiti and the Bajrang Dal

The Hindu, December 21, 2014

Forced into ‘homecoming’

Jatin Gandhi

A little over 200 kilometres from New Delhi, where Parliament was frequently disrupted over the controversy around conversions, is a small cluster of 60 homes adjoining Agra’s Ved Nagar Colony. Till recently, the inhabitants of this shanty town went on with their lives in abject poverty, struggling to make ends meet. They offered prayers but infrequently. The children were not sent to school. Instead, they were pairs of extra hands assisting the adults sift through garbage heaps for bits of plastic and polythene bags. The scrap was brought to the area, bundled up and sold to recyclers. Sometimes, the children learnt to read and write in the afternoon when a couple in the locality would come over and teach them. It was an informal arrangement.

In short, they were so busy fighting poverty that the elaborate rituals of faith or education were luxuries they could not afford. They were Bengali-speaking, Muslim immigrants on no-one’s radar. That was until December 8, 2014. Not anymore.

In the afternoon that day, Agra-based activists of the Dharm Jagran Samiti and the Bajrang Dal showed up at the colony and performed a ceremony that lasted a few hours, symbolising their re-conversion into the Hindu fold.

“This place is so far away from the city. We did not even know they existed. It was only after we learnt from the newspapers that our people needed protection that we got involved,” Mohammed Shamsher Khan Burkati, the member of the local Islamic seminary Tanzeem Ulemma-i-Ahle-Sunnat, Agra, said.

From December 10, Burkati or one of his colleagues has been coming to the locality every morning to teach the children to read the Koran. They were deputed by the Tanzeem after newspapers carried reports saying the Muslim inhabitants of the slum cluster converted to Hinduism on December 8. Since then, there has been a steady stream of visitors. Armed policemen have been deployed for their protection. Senior officials of the district administration visited and so have news television crews and other journalists. The Tanzeem sent new prayer mats and another Muslim organisation in Mumbai sent dry rations. “Local Samajwadi Party leaders came and left us bags of rice and dal,” said Munira Begum, who was among those who were subjected to the December 8 ritual. The fateful day has made them more aware of their religious identity than ever before. They now offer Namaz prayers every day, perhaps, to remind themselves and others that they are still Muslim.

“Nand Kishore Balmiki got in touch with me in the last week of November. He lived close by. He said the Modi government wanted to help the poor. He could get us BPL (Below Poverty Line) cards and Aadhaar cards. He said there would be a function organised to enrol us,” said Ismail, who heads the community by virtue of the fact that he is the contractor who employs the rest for gathering plastic.

Balmiki was arrested by the local police for “carrying out conversion by offering enticement” on December 16, Senior Superintendent of Police, Agra, Shalab Mathur said. “We are investigating the matter; if more names come up, we will take action,” he said. Balmiki, now the main accused in the matter, had begun negotiating with Ismail in the name of offering government sops. Ismail said they were even offered plots for building homes or small houses if they agreed to get converted. “We have lived here for 12 years. Before that we were in Tajganj for five years, but we were evicted by the plot owner,” Rashid, another resident, said. Both he and Ismail are from North 24 Parganas in West Bengal as are most others in the shanty cluster.

“Balmiki said he would come to make a list of those who needed to be given cards. Then he came with his son and took down our names and thumb impressions. He asked me to give a date for the function to enrol everyone so he could call the press and local leaders. We agreed on December 8. He asked me to tell the press that we were voluntary participants in all the proceedings; otherwise we would not get our due,” Ismail said. “On the morning of December 8, some men came and set up a stage. They also installed a statue of Kali Mata in the hut of Om Prakash Singh,” he said. Singh, the lone Hindu resident of the slum cluster, was away at that time. “I would not have let this happen, had I been around,” he said.

The victims alleged that the organisers gathered the men and women in the clearing beside the statue and surrounded them in large numbers, directing them to follow instructions during the rituals. A priest recited shlokas and smeared vermillion on a few people’s foreheads. “We were too scared to do anything except listen to their instructions,” Farhan said. Finally, the priest asked the men to remove their caps. “He then buried one cap under his foot. That was the time we realised we had done something wrong,” said Munira Begum, Ismail’s wife, rather pensively. “We spend the evening in a huddle unable to make sense of what exactly happened. One of our boys went to the market and people began asking him whether the entire colony had converted and become Hindu. He rushed back and told us about it. Soon journalists began coming here and then the police. We told them it wasn’t voluntary,” she said.

The organisers — from the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh affiliates Dharm Jagran Samiti and the Bajrang Dal — maintained that the Agra conversion was a voluntary Ghar Vapsi programme when reports appeared in the local media the next day. The RSS-affiliated organisations use the term broadly to mean a homecoming for Muslims and Christians back into the Hindu fold. “There was no use of force,” Tikam Singh, an office-bearer of the samiti, said. “Till the time all Hindus who were lured away don’t come back, there can be no nationalism. This is the only country where the majority is exploited and everyone else has protectors. We are trying to change that for good,” he said. The samiti, he said, does re-conversion programmes through the year. “The Agra conversion got undue publicity for reasons unknown to me.” Back in New Delhi, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has used the incident to reopen a debate on a central law against conversion. “Re-conversion is an issue only after conversion. In their eagerness to disrupt the proceedings the opposition parties have put themselves in a piquant situation ... By behaving anti-Hindu, they are creating more space for the BJP,” a senior party leader said.

India: The city adminsitrators should stand firm against the Far Right Bajrang Dal that has forced Victoria statues out of Agra park

The Times of India

Bajrang Dal forces Victoria statues out of Agra park
Ishita Mishra,TNN | Nov 18, 2014, 12.36 AM IST

Bajrang Dal forces Victoria statues out of Agra park
Local administration has removed century-old Queen Victoria statues quietly from Paliwal Park in the heart of Agra.


AGRA: The Bajrang Dal in Agra is keen to erase every trace of colonial rule from the city. Days after their protest on the "central location" of three of the century-old Queen Victoria statues, the local administration quietly removed it from Paliwal Park, in the heart of the city, to the backyard of the Agra Municipal Corporation's John's Public Library.

Bajrang Dal leaders had sent out a memorandum on November 7 demanding that the statues, a relic of our colonial past, be removed within 72 hours. On November 10, the statues were removed to a more innocuous part of the city.

Bajrang Dal state co-convener Ajju Chauhan said, "Paliwal Park is the heart of Agra. The Bajrang Dal is absolutely against having any sign of colonialism here. We are against such signs anywhere in the country. I am surprised that a huge amount of money is wasted in the maintenance of these statues and the library, which only serve as reminders of slavery."

Chauhan added that now the Bajrang Dal is set to organize a huge protest to ensure that the name of John's Public Library is changed too. "This library should ideally be named after Ram Vilas Sharma, a renowned Hindi author who refused several prestigious awards because what he sought was the enrichment of the Hindi language, not awards," Chauhan said.

The three statues, each between 10 and 12 feet tall, was carved in a mixture of 10 metals, including gold. Out in the open for so long, the statues have now lost their shine. In one of the statues, the 19th century British queen is seen holding a sword, symbolising her role as supreme commander of British forces; in the second, she holds a sceptre, a sign of her political power. In the third, she has a Bible in her hand to demonstrate her spiritual side.

"The DM initially said that he had nothing to do with Paliwal Park, but clarified later that he would get the statues shifted," Chauhan said.

District magistrate Pankaj Kumar, however, said he had not ordered the shifting of the statues and had no role in the affairs of the Paliwal Park, maintained by the Agra Municipal Corporation. He also refused to comment on the proposal to re-name the John's Public Library.

While Paliwal Park is maintained by Agra Municipal Corporation, the sculptures are the property of the district administration.

The John's Public Library was built through donations from wealthy residents of the city. It is named after an English industrialist and diamond merchant who contributed for the construction of the building in 1922. For long, the library building served as the city parliament. In 2011, the dilapidated library building was restored and re-opened.

Surendra Sharma, member of Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society, said he was sorry that the Bajrang Dal had such little appreciation or understanding of history. "If the Bajrang Dal has issues with all signs of the British Raj, it must call for the banning of train tracks and water lines, too, for these were also put in place by the colonial government." Municipal commissioner Indra Vikram Singh was travelling, and could not be contacted.