On Thursday, 2 September Hemant Soren Government in Jharkhand issued a government order for the allotment of "namaz hall" in the Assembly premises. The order, that became public two days later has now snowballed into a major controversy the state.
"Allotment of room number TW 348 as Namaz Hall for offering Namaz in the new Assembly Building," read a notification signed by the Jharkhand legislative assembly deputy speaker Naveen Kumar on the order by the speaker Rabindranath Mahto
BJP Strongly Opposes the Move, Demands for Hanuman Temple in Assembly
While, the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the Congress have welcomed the move, the BJP has expressed its strong opposition to it. It is now demanding for a construction of a Hanuman temple in the Assembly complex. The saffron party has also demanded for construction of separate worship halls for people of other religion.
Condemning the move of allotting a namaz room, BJP leader Raghubar Das said that the party will hold an agitation if the speaker does not withdraw the order. He claimed that the MLAs of the ruling party openly support the Taliban and added that the order was a result of this ideology, Hindustan Times reported.
Otherwise any person who believes in democracy would not commit such an act. The Soren government is also tarnishing the dignity of constitutional institutions for appeasement and vote bank politics. This is not a good sign for JharkhandBJP leader Raghubar Das said as quoted by Hindustan Times
Meanwhile, several other BJP leaders including Babulal Marandi, C P Singh have vehemently criticised the move.
BJP's chief whip Viranchi Narayan has also written to the speaker, asking him to withdraw the order. In his letter, he said that he will have to move to court if the speaker does not withdraw the order due to some "political pressure". According to him the order was "unconstitutional", "unparliamentary" and "irreligious order of Muslim appeasement"
While BJP's Marandi called it unconstitutional and demanded that separate worship halls be earmarked for a grand Hanuman temple and people of other religion, CP Singh said the government should expedite the process of constructing a grand Hanuman temple so that Hindus could recite Hanuman Chalisa .
Speaking to reporters, Singh said,
We are not aganist any religion in this country and everyone is free to practice the faith of their choice. Having said so Parliament and vidhan sabhas are regarded as temple of democracy and not of any specific religion. So if the state assembly allots space for Namaz, we also urge for setting up space for Hanuman temple.CP Singh said, as quoted by Times of India
According to the Times of India report, Singh claimed his demand was genuine as a majority of members in Assembly were Hindus. He said of the 82 members, only four were from other religion and the remaining practiced Hinduism.
Meanwhile, the ruling Congress and the JMM have rubbished BJP's demands and claims. The speaker said that there was nothing new in the order. He added that earlier too, the practice of adjourning the House half an hour before the scheduled time existed to help Muslim legislators in attending Friday prayers.
(With inputs from Hindustan Times and Times of India)
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