The Kanwar Yatra of 2022 is very special for the Bhagwan Shiva devotees as it is happening with full enthusiasm after a gap of two years owning to the Covid-19 pandemic. Lakhs of Kanwariyas all over India have been undertaking the arduous journey to collect water from holy rivers and offer it to Lord Mahadev. However, there have been multiple instances this year where the Yatra has faced hateful attacks.
#WATCH | Uttarakhand: Large number of Kanwariyas gathered at Haridwar as part of the ongoing Kanwar Yatra. pic.twitter.com/5GzPV6U6G0
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) July 24, 2022
On July 17, Congress’s national coordinator Ritu Choudhary sparked controversy by suggesting people pick up books so that they would not have to pick Kanwar. In a now-deleted tweet, she wrote, “Pick up a book, you don’t have to pick a Kanwar then.” Notably, during Kanwar Yatra, the pilgrims travel to Haridwar and other sacred places to get water from River Ganga and then go to one of the 12 Jyotirlingams to offer water that they collected to Bhagwan Shiva.
Following her tweet, people criticized her comments and questioned why she and her party hate Hindus and traditions linked to Sanatan Dharma. One user even asked her to say, “pick up a book, you won’t have to go Hajj” if she had the guts. As the controversy heated up, she quietly deleted the tweet without issuing any apology for the same.
Meat was thrown on Kanwar Yatra
On July 19, someone threw a piece of meat on Kanwar Yatra in Seelampur, Delhi. The incident occurred in the evening, following which the pilgrims doing Kanwar Yatra jammed the roads for an hour. While these Kanwars, who had walked for over seven days to reach Delhi, were welcomed with flowers at other locations, in Delhi, they had to face people throwing meat at them.
Speaking to OpIndia, the pilgrims said that they came to know about the piece of meat when one pilgrim was shifting Kanwar on another pilgrim’s shoulders. They did not know when it happened, but the incident shook them to the core.
8 Muslim men were arrested for offering Namaz on a road full of Kanwariyas
On July 22, Police were informed about a group of Muslim men offering Namaz at Shivalikpur Nagar, Ranipur, and Haridwar in Uttarakhand. When they were offering prayers, a large group of Kanwariyas was passing through the road.
All eight who were arrested by the Police were shopkeepers. One of the reports suggested that they were taking items on their back and suddenly grouped together and started offering Namaz on the road. They were booked for disrupting law and order.
Islamists spat on Kanwariyas in Meerut
Another incident happened in Meerut on July 22, where Islamists spat on Kanwariyas. Following the incident, Kanwariyas jammed the road and demanded action by the Police. Reports suggest that the pilgrims were sitting on the side of the road to rest for a while. Two people came on a bike and tried to spit on them. After that, one of them got off the bike and spat on the Kanwariyas.
The pilgrims grabbed one of them, but the other one escaped. The Police came to know about the incident. They came and took away the accused. The Police had to calm down the Kanwariyas as they got agitated when Police refused to hand over the accused to them.
Muslim women stopped Kanwariyas in Ibrahimpur
The most recent incident happened in Ibrahimpur, Muradabad. As per reports, a group of Muslim women stopped Kanwariyas from entering Ibrahimpur. They put up cot beds on the road and demanded that the pilgrims should return and follow the prescribed route. However, the Kanwariyas who were stopped by the women were from Ibrahimpur itself.
The Police came and tried to convince both parties, but no one listened. The women claimed that the Kanwariyas were starting a new trend of entering “Muslim-dominating areas”, and they would not allow them to pass. On the other hand, Kanwariyas said they were from the same village.
Senior Police officers and elders from the village held a Panchayat and allowed Kanwariyas to pass through the village. However, the Muslim community claimed if the route was not decided soon, they would hold protests.
Inputs of the terror attack on Kanwariyas
Before Kanwar Yatra started, the Union Home Ministry had alerted the state governments to be vigilant as there were inputs of the terror attack on the pilgrims.
