On 22 October, members of the Hindu right-wing groups Bajrang Dal and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) gathered at a ground in Sector 12, Gurugram, while 100-150 Muslims offered Friday prayers. Hindu groups then began playing bhajans on speaker systems, chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’. They occupied govt lands to offer prayers as the as the Hindu groups tried to oppose peacefully.
The offering of Friday prayers at one of the 37 namaz sites designated by the administration has been disrupted three times as of 8 October in Sector 47. These disruptions have made headlines, but the alleged architect is Dinesh Bharti, a Gurugram-based businessman who deals in construction materials and presents himself as a defender of the Hindu faith.
According to him, he has been disrupting public namaz sessions in Delhi’s satellite town since March, reigniting old fault lines that threaten the city’s social cohesion. Naresh Thakur, a 29-year old auto-rickshaw driver, is the only other member of Bharti’s group, Bharat Mata Vahini (BMV). The organization describes itself as the vehicle against different forms of ‘jihad’, which those within the Hindutva framework associate with alleged Islamic expansionist conspiracies. Among them are ‘land jihad’ and ‘love jihad’, as well as ‘Biryani jihad’.
Bharti, 48, also known as Dinesh Thakur, says he wants to stop Muslims from reading the namaz in public spaces. According to Bharti and other protesters, they are worried about the possible takeover of the land and overcrowding. Therefore, Muslims in Gurugram gather in public places for namaz due to a lack of mosques. The administration reduced the number of prayer sites in 2018 after protests against the prayers gained traction, consulting members of both communities. Bharti says he wants to prevent Muslims from spreading in Gurugram, and police say they are alert to prevent law-and-order situations. His protests have led to three arrests so far.
Bharti claims he used to be in charge of stage decorations during rallies in Gurugram for the BJP. District BJP sources distanced the party from Bharti, saying: ‘If he says he was a member, he probably was, but there are many members’. Bharti added that he began protesting open-area namaz after seeing one in Sector 38. According to him, he began a similar protest in both Sector 40 and Sector 39 in April. He rallies support for his protests on social media. In a 25 March Facebook post, Dinesh Bharti (also known as Dinesh Thakur) said that the BMV is ‘doing everything within the law and raising concerns about illegal Muslim activities in the city’.
Read more: ‘Eco-miracle’ seaweed: Indian women show the way
Some residents of Sector 47 also downplayed the connection to Bharti, where the protests ended after police and the local administration intervened and the praying site was moved 150 metres away. The Residents Welfare Association (RWA) noted that their main concern about namaz in public parking lots was overcrowding on Fridays. Sunil Yadav, the RWA president, said the proximity of the ground to a school made mothers of students uncomfortable. Bharti is in all the WhatsApp groups created by the RWA, Yadav said, but he denied any communal motive.
Mufti Mohammad Salim, president of the Gurugram Jamiat Ulama, claimed that holding public namaz is a sign of helplessness. The city has too few mosques for its large Muslim population, he continued. According to the cleric, if land for mosques is allocated according to population size, Muslims will hold their prayers in closed spaces.
Post Your Comments