Home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday inaugurated a temple very near to the Line of Control on a traditional route to the ancient Sharda Peeth temple located in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, saying the dilution of Article 370 had triggered a return to the “old civilisation” of the region.

The BJP leader inaugurated the temple through videoconference in the presence of top dignitaries.

The Sharda Peeth temple, devoted to the Hindu deity Sharda, is located in PoK’s Neelum Valley, 40km from Kupwara’s Teetwal village, where the new shrine — a replica of the original — has come up.

The temple in PoK was in the past a site of pilgrimage for Kashmiri Pandits but has been lying in ruins for a long time. The Pandits have long been demanding a corridor to the Sharda Peeth temple on the lines of the Kartarpur corridor in Punjab.

The temple Shah inaugurated has been built by a Kashmiri Pandit group, the Save Sharda Committee, with government help. At Teetwal, the Kishen Ganga river acts as the LoC.

The Union home minister said the 2019 scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir's special status had led to the temple’s construction in Teetwal.

“Because of Modiji’s efforts, the establishment of peace in Kashmir after the scraping of Article 370 has taken the Valley and Jammu back to its old traditions, old civilization, the Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb,” he told the audience.

Though Shah referred to the syncretic Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb, his reference to the “old civilisation” is in consonance with the shrill rhetoric by the Right-wing ecosystem seeking a Hindu revival in Kashmir.

“The temple plans are not just restricted to puja, it has also been designed to serve as a point to revive the civilisational legacy of the Kashmiri Hindu community and its long jnana parampara,” the Right-wing Swaraj magazine noted on Wednesday, calling it a civilisational achievement and a “return of the Goddess” to the Valley.

The restoration and renovation of old temples along with some Sufi shrines are high on the agenda of the central government.

Shah said the Centre had taken initiatives in all sectors, including the “culture rejuvenation” of Jammu and Kashmir.

“Systematic restoration and repair work is going on at 123 identified places under this, which include many temples and Sufi places,” he said. In the first phase, 35 sites are being renovated at a cost of Rs 65 crore, he said.

The home minister said the inauguration of the temple was the “beginning of a new era” and an important step towards the revival of the Sharda civilisation and the promotion of the Sharda script, the old script of Kashmiris that was replaced by the Persian Nastaliq script during Muslim rule.

“The Sharda script is the original script of our Kashmir, which has been named after Maa Sharda,” he said.

Shah said the Sharda Peeth was considered the centre of knowledge in the Indian subcontinent, and was thronged by scholars from all over the country.

The home minister said the Union government would work towards setting up a Kartarpur-like corridor to the Sharda Peeth in PoK.

“Today’s beginning will help in bringing back the lost glory of this place and with the blessing of Maa Sharda, this place will remain the centre of worship and continue to awaken the consciousness of India for ages,” he said.