Akhil Bharatiya Sant Samiti General Secretary Swami Jitendranand Saraswati on Sunday, 19 July sharply rebutted claims that namaz was never offered at the steps of Hanumangarhi temple in Ayodhya, asserting that the incident occurred not once but twice — in 2003 and again in 2005 — and that documentary evidence from district courts and television channels exists to prove it.

What Swami Jitendranand Saraswati Said

Addressing the controversy triggered by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's claim that namaz was offered on the steps of Hanumangarhi, Saraswati dismissed counter-assertions by Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati and former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh as an outright falsehood. 'Such a massive lie has never been told,' he reportedly said.

According to Saraswati, on the 'black day' of 20 November 2003 — during the tenure of then Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav — a Roza Iftar party and namaz were held inside the residential complex of Mahant Gyan Das, located within the 52-bigha Hanumangarhi premises. He argued that had the incident not been opposed, the darshan of Lord Hanuman at the temple might have been suspended.

The 2005 Protest and Naga Sadhu Stand-Off

Saraswati further stated that a second attempt was made to conduct prayers at Hanumangarhi in 2005, which was halted only after Naga Sadhus erupted in protest. The sadhus of Hanumangarhi observed a 14-day fast and staged a sustained sit-in to block the planned prayers, forcing the organisers to withdraw.

He noted that then Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath visited Hanumangarhi during this protest to extend his support to the demonstrating sadhus — a detail he offered as context for the current Chief Minister's claims.

Legal Record and Historical Claims

Saraswati said that five saints — including Mahant Dharma Das, Gauri Shankar Das, Rambaran Das, and two others — had filed a petition in the then Faizabad District Court regarding the 2003 incident. He added that court records and video footage from multiple television channels constitute verifiable evidence of both the 2003 event and the 2005 attempt.

On the question of the temple's origins, he rejected the claim that Nawab Shuja-ud-Daulah had built Hanumangarhi, asserting instead that the temple was constructed simultaneously with the Ram Janmabhoomi temple by Maharaja Vikramaditya. 'There are historical facts and adequate evidence to corroborate this,' he said.

Political Storm in Ayodhya

The row erupted after Chief Minister Adityanath publicly claimed that namaz had been offered on the steps of Hanumangarhi. Both Shankaracharya Avimukteshwaranand and former MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh rejected the assertion, demanding that Adityanath provide evidence to substantiate his remarks. Saraswati's intervention has deepened the intra-Hindu religious and political fault lines the controversy has exposed.

This is not the first time Hanumangarhi has been at the centre of communal and political tension in Ayodhya; the temple's contested history has periodically surfaced in state politics. With court records now being cited by one side and prominent religious figures divided on the other, the dispute is unlikely to be resolved quickly.