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Haj House row Raje Govt. creation: Gehlot

Special Correspondent

"Sangh Parivar has CM's tacit support"

JAIPUR: Congress general secretary and former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has described the controversy over the construction of a Haj House at Sanganer near here as the creation of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Government in Rajasthan. "The Sangh Parivar's opposition to the Haj House is after a tacit understanding between it and Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje," he charged.

"The State Government's position on the issue of Haj House is not above suspicion. It looks the controversy has been created intentionally," Mr.Gehlot said in a statement on Thursday. The foundation was laid for a Haj House earlier at Karbala within Jaipur. The Chief Minister herself had promised the State Assembly to construct Haj Houses in two different locations, he noted.

"The Chief Minister should make it clear as to what has happened to the promise to build two Haj Houses. The announcements by her and her Cabinet colleagues in the past on building two Haj Houses seemingly were only to gain the sympathy of the minority community," Mr.Gehlot charged. "The truth is that neither the State Government nor the BJP has any interest in the Haj House. All the controversy is to thwart its coming up," Mr.Gehlot charged, adding that the situation was similar to the BJP's promise of building a Ram temple at Ayodhya and forgetting all about it once the issue was politically utilised fully. All the communities in Rajasthan could see through the new game of the ruling party, he said.

"A Haj House is like a `musafirkhana' or a `dharamshala' and there is nothing to oppose its construction. The place will have accommodation and other facilities for those intending to go on Haj pilgrimage. People should defeat this dirty politics of the BJP," Mr.Gehlot said.

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