To paraphrase William Shakespeare, not all the scents of Arabia would suffice to wash away the sins of Ghazni and Alamgir at Mathura. And since it is… - Praful Goradia

In 1403 AD Ibrahim Naib Barbak ordered all Hindus to quit the city so that only Muslims could live there.

The author's colleagues and he were taken aback when several men of the Central Reserve Police in mufti stopped them from entering the famous Bhojshala. They said that normal entry to this temple school founded by Raja Bhoj was prohibited. On persuasive questioning, one of the policemen told us, that if we were Muslim, we could go in for two hours on any Friday. On the other hand, Hindus were allowed entry only once a year, on Vas ant Panchami or the day of Saraswati, the goddess of learning. If we belonged to any other faith, entry was regretted. No amount of coaxing was sufficient to make the policemen change their minds and allow us even a five minute walk through this historic temple school. We then realised why the compound had been barricaded although the neighbouring masjid named after Kamal Maula was functioning. So was a nearby dargaah and a few shops selling trinkets for rituals. This blatantly discriminatory order was issued by the Digvijay Singh government in 1997 when reports said that there was Hindu-Muslim tension in the area.

Octogenarian Niranjan Verma, a former parliamentarian, remembers how Jawaharlal Nehru found some reason or the other not to meet the delegations led by him. Eventually, he diverted Verma to see Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, who could not spare the time to visit Vidisha but deputed Prof Humayun Kabir, the then Education Secretary. The professor was impartial, and immediately conceded in the presence of many a local citizen that it was indeed a temple. However, at this late stage, since the matter would take on political hues, as a bureaucrat, he could do little. Verma and his supporters also approached Dr Kailash Nath Katju when he became Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. The reply they got was that Verma and his men should first persuade the Congressmen of Vidisha into agreeing that the Chief Minister could intervene in Bijamandal. Not long after that, the delegation met the then Chief Minister Mandloi who, incidentally, was sympathetic. His only problem was the fear of Nehru's wrath, which he candidly admitted. As already mentioned, Mishra did bring a halt to namaz being conducted in the edifice. His government donated Rs.40,000 for the construction of a separate idgaah nearby. By then Jawaharlal Nehru had been succeeded by the not antipathic Lal Bahadur Shastri.