The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has convened a meeting of its leaders and sadhus at its Kumbh camp on January 24 to discuss “Kashi and Mathura” among other issues, with senior monks clarifying this referred to seeking the handover of the Gyanvapi Mosque and Shahi Idgah to Hindus.

The purported agenda of the meeting flies in the face of a warning from Mohan Bhagwat, who as RSS chief heads the Sangh Parivar to which the VHP belongs, not to try to replicate the Ayodhya movement by “looking for a Shivalinga” in every mosque.

“Kashi and Mathura have been our commitment since 1984. We have to achieve this. This subject will also be discussed at the meeting,” VHP president Alok Kumar told reporters at the Kumbh on Tuesday. He said the meeting would “take some concrete steps” but did not elaborate.

“All the VHP members are meeting sadhus and inviting them to come to our camp on January 24 and discuss every possible issue that concerns Hindus,” Kumar added.

Sadhu Prakashanand Maharaj, Mahamandaleshwar of the Panchdashnam Avahan Akhara of Varanasi, was more forthright. “The agenda is clear. We want the Gyanvapi Masjid (in Varanasi) to become the Gyanvapi Mandir as soon as possible. We also want the Shahi Idgah in Mathura,” he told reporters.

“The Mughal rulers built many mosques by razing temples, or by converting temples into Muslim religious places. We have prepared a list of 42,000 such mosques.”

Dozens of petitions have been moved in courts, mostly in Uttar Pradesh, seeking the handover of Muslim religious structures and their sites to Hindus on the allegation that they were established by razing Hindu temples.

“This must stop. We have to show the world that we can live in social harmony,” Bhagwat had said last month, the caution apparently directed at the Yogi Adityanath government.

Adityanath seems to have thrown his weight behind these efforts to “reclaim” temples, with his administration’s role coming under the scanner after a survey of a mosque in Sambhal — to ascertain whether it was built over a demolished temple — led to violence and four deaths.

Speaking off the record, a BJP leader said: “Religious division is the only path to success for Adityanath in the 2027 Assembly elections, which is key to his ambitions of claiming the Prime Minister’s chair after Narendra Modi.”

Dewakinandan Thakur, a preacher from Mathura, said: “We are happy that the VHP has convened the meeting. Sanatan (Hindu) people want to do kar seva on the same day in Mathura and Kashi.”

Ravindra Puri, head of the All India Akhara Parishad, said: “We are with the VHP.”

Prakashanand said the sadhus wanted to “achieve the target in 2025 itself”.

“We want our Muslim brothers to show compassion for India and surrender these structures to us. Otherwise, we will take them through the courts,” he said.

Striking a more threatening note, he added: “We will achieve it through kranti (revolution) if we don’t get it through shanti (peace).”

Puri said: “We have convened a second meeting of sadhus at the Parishad’s camp on January 27 to demand that the government either form a ‘Sanatan board’ on the lines of the waqf board or abolish the waqf board. We have to do this in the next few months.”

He added: “Our other demand is to have cows declared as Rashtramata (Mother of the Nation).”

Mumtaz Alam Rizvi, an author and an expert on Muslim issues, hit out at the VHP’s purported agenda.

“These people believe neither in the Constitution nor in the courts…. The court didn’t ask them to demolish the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992. They did so while claiming it was their property, when the case was pending,” he said.

“This is how they want to grab other Islamic places…. They are defying the law of India. They are insulting the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, every day and at the same time claiming that they follow the courts and the Constitution.”