The BBC and Pakistani media have carefully dug up a nearly month-old story, just a week after the Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha, to weave their basic favourite narrative that “Muslims are living in fear and danger in Hindutva India”.
On 3rd January, Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena Chief Eknath Shinde while addressing an event in Thane reiterated the party’s commitment to liberate Malanggad, popularly known as the Haji Malang Dargah.
The BBC reported Shinde’s statement on 29th January, which, interestingly, was surprisngly 6 days after the Pran Pratishtha but exactly 25 days after the issue first came to light.
Speaking about Shinde’s statement in Thane earlier this month, the report read, “His claim comes at a time when some prominent mosques and Muslim-made monuments in India are mired in disputes over claims that they were constructed by demolishing Hindu temples centuries ago.”
This was a passing remark at Ayodhya Ram Mandir and the Gyanvapi dispute. The report talks about the Malanggad dargah and portrays it as a symbol of religious unity and coexistence. And then it goes on to malign Hindus, who perform pooja at the shrine, by calling them “Hindu hardliners”.
The sinister report attempts to paint a picture as if to influence the electoral landscape by making insinuations including that the Malanggad hill area is deprived of amenities because it is a Muslim area.
On one hand, the BBC report states that “Hindu hardliners have continued the practice of performing pooja at the shrine on full Moon days, occasionally leading to clashes with Muslim devotees and locals.”
On the other hand, it quotes the Muslim management of the dargah and Muslim locals to say that “Hindus and Muslims have co-existed in harmony”. It does so by shooting the gun off the politicians’ shoulders.
Notably, the dargah is maintained by a three-member trust which reportedly includes a Hindu Brahmin family. The BBC has not bothered to speak to the Hindu Brahmin family, the Ketkars, managing the dargah, for their report.
Interestingly, the BBC report got picked up in no time by the Pakistani media and the facts as we know them ceased to exist.
A report shared by the Pakistani channel Geo TV’s digital website was titled, “Haji Malang Dargah ‘on radar of Hindutva extremists’ after Ram Mandir’s opening”.
The headline suggests that the dargah issue has been raked up recently by Hindus after Ram Mandir was opened, as if all Muslim structures are under threat because of Ram Mandir.
This misleading rhetoric does not mention that the issue about the Haji Malang Dargah is an old one and did not result after the opening of Ram Mandir. The dargah controversy and Ram Mandir have absolutely no links whatsoever. Morever, the statement made by Shinde was weeks before the Ram Mandir opened and not “after”.
Additionally, the issue of the dargah has been raised by the Shiv Sena multiple times in the past.
Suffice to say that the GEO TV report has copied fake and misleading news proudly from the BBC report. They too, like BBC, have demonised Hindu hardliners for being responsible for the altercations with Muslim worshippers because the former perform poojas there on full moon days.
What is the controversy over the Haji Malang Dargah?
The Haji Malang Dargah or Malanggad is situated 3000 feet above sea level to the south of Kalyan in the Matheran hill ranges.
On 20th February, devotees will mark the death anniversary of Haji Abd-ul-Rahman, a so-called Sufi saint of the 12th century.
In 1980s, prominent Shiv Sena leader Anand Dighe – who was Eknath Shinde’s political mentor – led the first agitation claiming that the structure was the location of an old Hindu shrine belonging to the Nath Panth.
Dighe began an agitation claiming that the shrine belonged to Hindus and that it was a site of a 700-year-old Machindranath temple. In 1996, he insisted on leading 20,000 Shiv Sainiks to the shrine to perform pooja.
It is since then that the structure has been called Shri Malanggad.
The Gazetteers of Bombay Presidency published in 1882 states that the shrine was built in honour of an Arab missionary, Haji Abd-ul-Rahman.
He reportedly arrived with a bunch of followers from Yemen and settled on the lower plateau of the hill.
In February 2023, Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde performed aarti at the site and offered a saffron covering inside the dargah.
