SHROUD OF SHAME: Is this what they mean when they say ‘Bura na maano Holi hai’? The facades of over a dozen mosques in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur city have been covered with thick plastic to prevent flare-ups during Holi. The local administration has been doing so since the late ’80s when someone threw gulal at a mosque during the Laat Sahab procession taken out during Holi, triggering violence. The Laat Sahab procession is a hat-tip to the secular ethos of the country. It was started under a different name by Abdullah Khan, the Nawab of Shahjahanpur, in 1729 and Hindus and Muslims used to take part in it as one. However, the atmosphere got vitiated during the peak of the Ram temple movement in the late ’80s, when the attack took place in Shahjahanpur. PTI

By Piyush Srivastava

The famed Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan has rejected a Hindutva group’s demand to stop buying clothes for the deity from Muslims, taking a stand against hate amid a shower of communal vitriol from BJP ministers and lawmakers in the run-up to Holi.

“The temple management met and decided not to accept the weird demand,” Gyanendra Kishore Goswami, senior priest at the Sri Thakur Banke Bihari Ji Maharaj Mandir, told reporters on Thursday.

“Most of those who stitch clothes for the idol are Muslim. They are the best tailors and the most disciplined. They understand our needs and work with devotion.”

The Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi Sangharsh Nyas has urged all temples in Mathura district to stop buying clothes for their deities from Muslims. It had written to the Banke Bihari temple management too.

Nyas president Dinesh Falahari said: “God’s clothes need to be pure; they shouldn’t be stitched by people who don’t respect Mother Cow and the Hindu religion.”

Hindutva groups have made similar demands to temple authorities in Varanasi, Ayodhya, Sambhal and other districts of Uttar Pradesh, where Muslim tailors have traditionally bought cloth and stitched dresses for temple deities. The Banke Bihari temple is the first to come out openly against the demand.

This story was originally published in telegraphindia.com. Read the full story here.