Madhya Pradesh Govt Okays Proposal to Build ‘Bharat Mata’ Temple

(File photo/PTI)

Bhopal: In an election year, the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh has cleared a proposal allowing construction of a “Bharat Mata” temple near the state capital.

A Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today approved the proposal moved by the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) seeking land to build the temple of the “Mother India”, which will come up in Singarcholi area near Airport Road.

“The Cabinet cleared the land proposal for building the Bharat Mata Parisar in Bhopal,” state minister and government spokesman Narottam Mishra told reporters. The government has sanctioned the allocation of 5.046 hectares of land to the BMC for the construction of the Bharat Mata Mandir Parisar (temple complex) at Singarcholi, a close aide of Mishra told PTI.

The development came nearly a month after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat unveiled a 16-feet tall statue of Bharat Mata in MP’s Ujjain district.

“While worshipping the ‘motherland’, we have to consider the entire society as ours. We should be free from barriers of ‘ours versus theirs’ and ‘big versus small’. Where there are cordial ties, there is no ego,” Bhagwat had said.

The Sangh chief also said that the undivided image of Mother India should be worshipped. Clearance of the proposal may give rise to the temple politics in the poll-bound state.

According to sources in the Congress, party president Rahul Gandhi might visit temples during run-up to elections like he did in Gujarat last year.