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Regular-article-logo Saturday, 11 May 2024

BJP youth wing holds Hanuman Chalisa recital on Bengal road in tit-for-tat to Friday namaz

This is what the Twitterati had to say about the the chanting of Hanuman Chalisa

The Telegraph Calcutta Published 26.06.19, 10:22 AM
(Left) O.P. Singh, the BJYM Bengal leader who was behind the Hanuman Chalisa recitation; a file photo of Muslims gathered for namaz on a road.

(Left) O.P. Singh, the BJYM Bengal leader who was behind the Hanuman Chalisa recitation; a file photo of Muslims gathered for namaz on a road. Photo source: @ANI, Shutterstock

The Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the BJP's youth wing, today blocked a road in Howrah, near Calcutta, and its followers recited the Hanuman Chalisa to protest namaz readings by Muslims on Fridays on various roads.

In a video released by ANI on its Twitter handle, BJYM Howrah district president O.P. Singh said: 'In Mamata Banerjee's rule we have seen Grand Trunk Road and other main roads being blocked on Fridays for namaz. Patients die, people cannot reach office on time because of this. As long as this continues, we will recite Hanuman Chalisa on Tuesdays on all main roads near Hanuman temples.'

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There has been no report of a patient dying because of namaz readings on Fridays in Calcutta or its surrounding areas in recent months. But there have been murmurs of discontent in some sections of Calcutta over Friday prayers of Muslims, in which the BJP and its frontal organisations have found a scope to start a campaign.

SInce the Lok Sabha elections, Bengal has also become an ever bubbling pot of communal tension and violence.

Yesterday, a resident of Canning in South 24-Parganas, was hit on his right eye, his kurta torn and he was pushed out of the train at Park Circus station, allegedly by members of Hindu Samhati, a Hindutva organisation that describes itself as non-political.

“I am still scared. The youths had scarves around their heads that had the word Hindu Samhati written on it. They kept asking me why I was sporting a skullcap, why I had a long beard, why I was wearing a kurta. ‘You can’t wear all these. Jai Shri Ram bol’, they said,” the survivor Shahrukh told The Telegraph on Tuesday. “There were some 20-25 of them in the compartment.”

Yesterday's incident came to light soon after the lynching of a 24-year-old welder, Tabrez Ansari, in Jamshedpur by a mob that asked him to chant 'Jai Shri Ram'. Tabrez, who was thrashed for hours, died.

Many posted their support to the Hanuman Chalisa reading in Howrah today:

Probably drawing inspiration from festive pandals and shamiana, some wanted to have Hanuman Chalisa booming on loudspeakers.

Someone even pointed out the difference between processions taken out by the two said communities.

There were members on the social media platform who expressed their concerns about more relevant topics that affect the masses on a daily basis.

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