The BJP Bengal youth wing has again taken to the streets of Howrah to recite Hanuman Chalisa on Tuesday. This time women and children also participated in the protest. The gathering assembled on July 2, 2019, in front of a Hanuman Mandir at the AC Market, Howrah. The road was reportedly blocked for an hour.
The protest was led by the BJYM (Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha) President, Om Prakash and Priyanka Sharma, the BJP Bengal youth leader, who had last week also spearheaded a similar protest in Howrah as a mark of protest to the Friday namaz which are offered on the streets.
The BJYM President, Om Prakash had said that if Muslims can block roads every Friday to offer Namaz and the administration does nothing to prevent it, why can’t they do the same to recite Hanuman Chalisa. He furthered that, henceforth on every Tuesday, as a mark of protest the BJYM will gather to recite Hanuman Chalisa on the road, at various locations where there were Hanuman Mandirs in Howrah.
Last week, over 100 members of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s youth wing sat on the street of the Bally Khal area in Howrah district and recited ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ on Tuesday night in a bid to put pressure on the state administration to prevent Muslims from offering Friday namaz on the roads and blocking traffic.
Om Prakash had said that the GT Road in Howrah is blocked for Friday namaz which is being offered on the roads. As per him, the road blocked because of namaz leads to chaos, traffic jams and causes a lot of harassment to people including patients who are trying to reach hospital and office-goers.
“In Mamata Banerjee’s rule, we’ve seen Grand Trunk Road and other main roads are blocked on Fridays for namaz. Patients die, people can’t go to the office on time. As long as it continues, we’ll recite Hanuman Chalisa on Tuesdays on all main roads near Hanuman temples,” he had added.
Illegal gatherings for namaz has been a constant source of bother for authorities. Hindu outfits had demanded a ban on namaz at public places in Haryana. Haryana CM Khattar had also criticized them saying that namaz should be offered at mosques and not on public spaces. The Madras High Court had ruled in July that public places cannot be encroached upon for the purpose of offering prayers.
In December last year, the Noida Police had issued an advisory notice to companies in sector 58, asking their administrations to dissuade their employees from visiting nearby parks for offering namaz. The police had asserted that the companies must ensure that their officials use office premises or mosques for Namaz but not public places.
