New Delhi: The allocation of a namaaz room in the premises of the Jharkhand assembly has triggered massive controversy in the state, with the BJP calling it an act of “appeasement” and demanding that a Hanuman temple be made inside the assembly too.
The controversy has now had a ripple effect in other states, with a Samajwadi party MLA in Uttar Pradesh wanting a namaaz room in the assembly and a BJP MLA in Bihar demanding a room in the state assembly for MLAs to chant the Hanuman chalisa.
At the root of the row is a notice issued by the Jharkhand Assembly Speaker on 2 September, informing the allotment of a particular room in the assembly as the “Namaz Hall for offering Namaz in the new Assembly Building”.
MLAs from the opposition BJP have been up in arms since, demanding that the notice be recalled.
“An assembly is supposed to be a secular place, why should there be a namaaz hall. This is classic appeasement of the minority community, that they have been doing for all these years,” C.P. Singh, a BJP MLA from Jharkhand told ThePrint.
On 7 September, a Jharkhand resident filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the state high court against the allotment, calling it a “strike against secularism” and waste of the taxpayer’s money.
The assembly session, which ended Thursday, saw frequent disruptions amid continuous sloganeering by BJP MLAs against the notice. On Tuesday, the MLAs sat outside the House, dressed as saints, chanting ‘Jai Sri Ram’ and the Hanuman chalisa.
After continued protests, Jharkhand assembly Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahato Thursday set up a seven-member all-party committee to look into the matter, and submit a report in 45 days on whether to retain the namaaz room.
ThePrint reached Mahato over phone and text messages, but there was no response till the time of publishing this report.
Also read: UP Police books Owaisi for vitiating communal harmony, violating Covid norms
‘Nothing wrong with prayer room, don’t communalise everything’
The Jharkhand BJP has said that if the notice allotting a namaaz room in the assembly isn’t recalled, then a Hanuman mandir too should be made within the assembly.
“There are only four Muslim MLAs. Why create a separate namaaz room for them? And if there is a namaaz room for them, there should be a Hanuman mandir for the remaining 77 Hindu MLAs too,” Singh said.
He further claimed that on Fridays, the assembly session is suspended early, at 12:30 pm, for Muslim MLAs to offer the Friday Jumah prayers. “So we are also demanding that the session should be suspended early on Tuesdays, so that we can go to the mandir,” he said.
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the ruling party in the state, has branded the protest by BJP an attempt at “communalising” everything.
Speaking to ThePrint, Vinod Pandey, spokesperson of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) said that the decision of the committee set up by the Speaker to look into the matter will be final.
“The BJP’s sole aim is to communalise every single thing. It has always been the norm to have a room in assemblies across states dedicated to prayer and worship. So there should be no problem now. If they want a Hanuman mandir in the assembly, they should demand it in the assembly discussion, not create a ruckus outside of it,” Pandey said.
Pandey added that there had been a prayer room in the assembly even when Jharkhand was created in 2000. BJP leader Babulal Marandi had been the CM then. The BJP leader is presently the leader of opposition in the Jharkhand assembly.
Also read: Animal extract in idli, dosa batter? Bengaluru’s iD trashes communal social media posts
Namaaz room request in UP, Hanuman Chalisa room in Bihar
The controversy has meanwhile spilled across Jharkhand’s borders and is finding resonance in neighbouring UP and Bihar.
In Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party MLA Irfan Solanki has demanded a namaaz room in the state assembly. “I have had a word with the Speaker about this. If they ask me to give it in writing to the House, I will do that too,” Solanki told ThePrint.
“I haven’t asked for a separate mosque, I have merely asked for a room where we can pray namaaz on time. We always have to leave the assembly to go to a mosque to pray. If there is a small room in the assembly itself, we won’t have to leave. It will make things easier,” he added.
Meanwhile, a BJP MLA from Bihar, Hari Bhushan Thakur, has demanded that a room be allotted in the state assembly where the Hanuman Chalisa can be recited.
“Woh karein toh theek, aur hum apne dharm ki baat karein toh galat? Yeh ab nahi chalega. Chalega toh barabari se chalega (They can talk about their religion but we can’t? This won’t work anymore. Both religions will be treated equally now),” Thakur has told the local media.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
Also read: Bhainsa, the Telangana town where even a ‘small issue’ can lead to a big communal flare-up