Omar Abdullah’s response to Shankaracharya Hill
As we noted, the IndiaFacts story on the renaming of the Shankaracharya Hill at Srinagar to Takht-e-Suleiman resulted in a significant impact with various organizations protesting against this historical distortion.
On his part, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abullah too has jumped into the fray. However, he chose Twitter as the medium to express his stand on the issue. Here are the relevant tweets:
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- Omar Abullah’s Tweet on Shankaracharya Hill 1
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- Omar Abullah’s Tweet on Shankaracharya Hill 2
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- Omar Abullah’s Tweet on Shankaracharya Hill 3
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- Omar Abullah’s Tweet on Shankaracharya Hill 4
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- Omar Abullah’s Tweet on Shankaracharya Hill 5
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- Omar Abullah’s Tweet on Shankaracharya Hill 6
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- Omar Abullah’s Tweet on Shankaracharya Hill 7
In response to some of these tweets, journalist and author Rahul Pandita retorted thus:
Two specific tweets from Omar Abdullah are highly revealing.
1. The first is where he has tweeted a picture of the ASI plaque whose title announces that it is indeed the Shankaracharya temple. However, the accompanying text clearly mentions the hill (where the temple is located) as Takht-I-Sulaiman. This fact can also be cross verified on the J&K Tourism website which too, calls it the Takht-e-Suleiman.
2. The second is where Omar Abdullah claims that he had spoken to Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) officials and “confirmed” that they had “no such proposals.” However, IndiaFacts has in its possession an RTI query filed to inquire about this exact same issue. We have reproduced the RTI query and the ASI’s reply to it.
(Click and zoom the attached images for the full size)
As we have stated in our credo, IndiaFacts will continue to monitor all such cases of distortion in our endeavour to restore truth and decency in public discourse.
