A Mazar was built overnight inside Dehradun’s famous “Doon School”🤯
~ Rahul, Scindia, Naveen Patnaik, Abhinav Bindra and many others have studied here!School had a Holiday for 3 days, thus Muslim Radicals quickly built it. It has been DESTROYED after local protest 🔥👌 pic.twitter.com/qlVnUMrLXa
— The Analyzer (News Updates🗞️) (@Indian_Analyzer) November 12, 2024
Doon School: A New Frontier for the Waqf?
Alumni and locals alike watched in bafflement as the audacity of this attempted land grab became clear. Let’s face it—Waqf’s keen eye for prime real estate is well-known across the country, but who would have guessed that Doon School might become its next big “project”? With an alumni list featuring some of India’s most influential names, one can only wonder about the grand vision behind this “overnight mazar.” A new chapter in Waqf-owned, education-infused real estate, perhaps?
The Making of a Mazar (in Record Time) at Doon School
The timing was impeccable. As the school took a three-day holiday, the opportunity arose for some “quick renovations.” With remarkable coordination, the shrine was nearly complete before anyone had a chance to blink. When Radha Dhoni Semwal, an activist with a Hindu nationalist organization, streamed a live video of the structure, it was already a fully-fledged mazar occupying a choice location within Doon’s prestigious grounds. The boldness of it all!
Enter the Authorities
The Supreme Court has made it clear that any religious structure on public or institutional land must be pre-approved by the District Magistrate. Of course, given the stealth and speed of this operation, no permission was sought. District Magistrate Savin Bansal and his team arrived promptly, finding themselves face-to-face with the hastily-built shrine. Despite the legal hoops typically involved in demolishing structures, this one came down as quickly as it went up.
The Bigger Picture
This episode adds a curious footnote to Uttarakhand’s ongoing efforts to tackle unauthorized religious encroachments, commonly called “land jihad.” While authorities grapple with these issues across the state, the brazenness of building a shrine within the grounds of Doon School sends a message that’s hard to ignore: nothing, it seems, is off-limits.