‘Talks on iconography of idols in Delhi’s Qutub Minar complex on’

NEW DELHI: The culture ministry on Monday said discussions are under way to conduct an iconography of the Hindu and Jain idols found in Delhi’s Qutub Minar complex and to see if they can be labelled and displayed at an interpretation centre that is intended to come up on the Unesco world heritage site.
A senior official said that while the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque, adjoining the Qutub Minar, was built with stones from temples, and such idols in different forms can be seen all around, there are no plans, at present, to reinstate or displace them from where they are.
The official’s comments were in response to a request by the National Monument Authority, which had written to the Archaeological Survey of India to move two idols of Lord Ganesh “owing to their disrespectful placement”.
The culture ministry also clarified that prayers or other religious practices on the premises of ASI-protected sites can only be allowed if they the monument was a “functioning place of worship” at the time the authority took charge of it.
In this case, neither the Qutub Minar, nor the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque, were functioning places of worship at the time the ASI took over their maintenance and upkeep.