Any disputed structure should not be called a mosque, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath said on Friday.

“The day we stop calling it a mosque, people will stop going there,” he said at an event organised by news channel Aaj Tak in Prayagraj. “Hurting anyone’s faith by constructing a mosque-like structure does not align with Islamic principles. Worship at such sites is not acceptable to god too.”

Islam does not mandate the construction of a structure for worship, the chief minister said. “But Sanatan Dharma does,” he added.

Sanatana Dharma is a term some people use as a synonym for Hinduism.

The statement by the Bharatiya Janata Party leader comes amid increasing lawsuits by Hindu parties claiming ownership of mosques and dargahs.

On December 12, the Supreme Court barred trial courts from passing orders, including survey directions, in pending lawsuits concerning the religious character of places of worship.

It also said that no new suits can be registered in any court across the country until further orders while it hears a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the 1991 Places of Worship Special Provisions Act.

The Act does not allow any changes to the religious character of a place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947.

On Friday, Adityanath said that while “sanatanis go to temples for worship”, it was not the case for Islamic practices. “It is unnecessary to insist on calling any [disputed] structure a mosque,” he said.

The chief minister said that it was time to embrace the vision of a new India and move forward with progressive thinking. “We must focus on building unity and harmony instead of clinging to disputes of the past,” he added.

On a question about claims being made that the Mahakumbh Mela in Prayagraj was being held on land owned by the Waqf Board, the BJP leader claimed that the event had taken places on the site for thousands of years.

The Mahakumbh Mela is a Hindu festival and pilgrimage that takes place every 12 years at four riverbanks in India in Prayagraj, Haridwar, Nashik and Ujjain. This year, it will begin on January 13 and conclude on February 26.

A waqf is a property given for a religious, educational or charitable cause by Muslims. In India, waqfs are governed under the Waqf Act. Each state has a Waqf Board led by a legal entity, who is vested with the power to acquire, hold and transfer a property.

“If someone now calls this land Waqf Board property, we must ask whether it belongs to the Waqf Board or land mafia,” the chief minister claimed.

Such “malicious tendencies” need to be curbed, he added.

His statements came days after a Muslim cleric claimed that the Mahakumbh Mela in Prayagraj was being held on waqf land, India Today reported.

The BJP leader said that he would put an end to such allegations. Those who came to the event with such intentions of “claiming the land” would face “denting-painting”, or punitive action, he added.