- Wednesday, March 12, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
JUST days after its inauguration, the LuLu Mall in Lucknow, the capital of northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and one of the most religiously polarised, has courted a controversy.
Videos have surfaced on social media showing people from the country’s minority Muslim community offering prayers (namaz) inside the mall’s shopping arena. The incident is said to happened on Tuesday (12).
Hindu organisations in the state where prime minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in power, objected to the incident and asked all Hindus to boycott the mall.
Namaz inside Lulu Mall, Lucknow …. even malls are not spared now ? pic.twitter.com/lES84Sqhuy
— Vikas (@VikasPronamo) July 13, 2022
On Thursday (14), Shishir Chaturvedi, the national spokesperson of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, was quoted as saying by India Today, “People offered namaz sitting on the floor in LuLu Mall, this video proves that government orders were violated in the mall. The government has directed that namaz cannot be offered in public spaces.”
“I will request chief minister Yogi Adityanath to take action on such incidents and ensure that it does not happen again.”
The organisation also submitted a written complaint to Lucknow Police against the mall authorities over the viral video.
Adityanath, who is a poster boy of India’s Hindutva politics, was present at the inauguration ceremony of the mall on July 10, along with the chief of the LuLu Group, MA Yussuf Ali. Several hundreds visited the massive mall, the first set up by the UAE-based group in north India and the fifth overall in India.
Reactions also poured in on social media with many expressing anger over people offering namaz inside the shopping mall. They asked why the people were allowed to pray in the open and not in a designated prayer area.
After announcing the strict ban on #Namaz in public places in Lucknow. Not followed by #LuluMallLucknow which was recently inaugurated by Lion #YogiAdityanath
But Pakistani supporter like #LuluMall spread #LoveJihad by employing only Hindu female against all male Muslims In India pic.twitter.com/KpfSES82bW— Narendra Singh ?? (@Singh2021in) July 14, 2022
Shocking visuals of Namaz being offered in Uttar pradesh's Newly inaugurated Lulu Mall ,Hindu groups raised questions.#feedmile #LuluMallLucknow #Uttarpradesh #Namaz #Lucknow #Muslims #yogiAdityanath pic.twitter.com/zLnGc0xt2M
— Feedmile (@FeedmileApp) July 14, 2022
#Luknow, #UP: Reportedly Visuals of #Namaz being offered inside the recently inaugurated #Lulu_Mall Lucknow by UP CM Yogi Adityanath and Defence Min Rajnath Singh in Lucknow.??..1/2
— SHANKAR BARADHWAJ (@shankar6763) July 14, 2022
However, there were also people who did not find any problem with it. One social media said while Modi could carry out Hindu rituals at the new parliament building of secular India built with public money, why some Muslims could not offer prayers at a mall owned by an individual.
Modi ji can do Pooja by Hindu rituals in New Parliament building of Secular India which is built with public money but few Muslims can't offer Namaz in Private Lulu Mall, which is owned by Yousuf Ali.#ModiMustResign
#LuluMallLucknow #Lulumall pic.twitter.com/RuSqXkDsTx— Pooja Mathur (@PoojaMathur01) July 14, 2022
