By Piyush Srivastava
A minister in the Yogi Adityanath government has suggested that Muslims cover themselves with tarpaulin while stepping out of their homes to offer Friday prayers during Holi, days after the chief minister made a similar communally loaded statement.
Raghuraj Singh, minister of state for labour and employment, told reporters in Aligarh on Tuesday: “Those who wear white skullcaps should put on a piece of tarpaulin on Holi if they want to go out of their homes for Friday prayers. Those who want to offer namaz on that day can avoid colours only by doing so. Those who play Holi can’t measure how far their colour will go. By wearing tarpaulin, the Muslims can save themselves from the Holi colours.”
Going a step forward, the BJP MLA of Bansdih in Ballia district, Ketakee Singh, said a few hours later: “I demand that Maharajji (Adityanath) build a separate ward for Muslims in the under-construction medical college here. They have a problem playing Holi with us. Maybe they have problems receiving treatment on the premises where Hindus are treated.”
Several BJP leaders, including Adityanath, have over the past few days been spewing communal venom at Muslims over Holi, although none from the minority community has expressed any apprehension over the festival of colours coinciding with Ramzan-time Jumma Namaz. Most of the senior Muslim clerics in the heartland have already made it clear that there is no conflict between the two communities over the celebration of Holi and the offering of Jumma Namaz on the same day.
Three days ago, Anuj Chaudhary, a circle officer of Sambhal town where a mosque has landed at the centre of a bitter tussle over claims that it was built by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb by demolishing a temple, had said: “Jumma (Friday) comes 52 times in a year but Holi comes only once. Those who have a problem with the colours of Holi should stay indoors and offer namaz there only.”
This story was originally published in telegraphindia.com. Read the full story here.