New Delhi: The annual Neja Mela will not be held in Uttar Pradesh’s communally sensitive Sambhal district after the police denied permission to its organisers over the event’s connection with a historical figure who allegedly took part in the plunder of Somnath temple.
A video of Additional Superintendent of Police (North) Shirish Chandra has been widely shared in which he calls the fair a ‘wrong tradition’ and warned action against the organisers. In the video, Chandra explains that the fair is held in memory of Masud Ghazi, the nephew of invader Mahmud Ghazni who forayed into India with the intent to loot and kill.
On Tuesday, police carried out flag marches in the area where the three-day fair was to begin from 25 March.
“Neja fair has been organised in Sambhal for a long time. It was factually found that this fair is celebrated in the memory of Ghazi Saiyyad Salar Masud Ghazi, who was a robber, murderer, and the destroyer of many shrines, including Somnath temple. Permission has been denied for organising the mela,” Chandra told the media Tuesday.
Additional forces, he said, have been deployed.
The denial of permission to the organisers for the annual fair comes in the backdrop of a police officer’s recent statement in another video wherein he says that those uncomfortable with the colours of Holi should remain indoors on that day.
On Friday, authorities and local residents heaved a sigh of relief after Holi, weekly namaz concluded peacefully in Sambhal.
Sambhal has been in the news of late, mostly for wrong reasons. In November last year, four people had died in alleged police firing after a mob came out against the Allahabad High Court court ordered a survey of Shahi Jama Masjid.
Riots had also broken out in 1978, which had claimed many lives and left several injured.
The latest decision has miffed the fair organisers, who claimed that the annual event was being organised for nearly 50 years.
Tasdeeq Ilahi, a member of the fair organising committee, told ThePrint that the office bearers of the ‘Neja Mela’ Committee met the district police officers on Monday to seek permission to hold a flag installation event on 18 March apart from the fair as well.
“This fair had an old history, but they denied permission saying that organising a fair to commemorate someone who had looted the country and destroyed temples is a betrayal to the country,” he told ThePrint.
The district officials, according to the fair’s organising committee members, changed the event’s name to ‘Sadbhavna Mela’ in 2023, after receiving complaints from some Right-wing groups.
Another committee member Shahid Masoodi said the fair had been happening at least for the last 47 years at the same venue.
“Last year, it did not happen due to Ramzan but we celebrated the mela in 2023 as ‘Sadbhavna mela” (harmony fair). This time, we decided to organise it again but did not get any permission. It is true that this fair is in the name of Saiyyad Salar Masud Ghazi, but we are ready to organise it as a ‘Sadbhavna mela’. But the administration is not ready to give us the permission,” Masoodi told ThePrint.
“It is the government’s call. They did not even allow the fair flag to be installed. This mela has been held for hundreds of years, and we do not even know much about the Somnath Temple incident.”
On the other hand, a senior police officer explained that the mela is organised in the memory of Syed Salar Masud Ghazi, who had defeated a Rajput king in Sambhal in the 11th century.
“Mahmud Ghazni was infamous for demolishing the famous Somnath temple in Gujarat. Some Hindu outfits also raised a question on such tradition. Keeping in mind the situation at Sambhal where five were killed in a violence that occurred in November during the survey of Shahi Jama Masjid, the administration decided not to give permission,” the police officer told ThePrint.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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