- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
MANOHAR Lal Khattar, the chief minister of the northern Indian state of Haryana, on Friday (10) courted controversy saying members of the Muslim community should not offer Friday prayers in open spaces in Gurgaon, a city located in his state and officially called Gurugram.
Khattar, who belongs to prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), withdrew an earlier agreement while making the latest remark. The agreement was reached after communal clashes in 2018 that allowed namaz (prayers) at designated places in the city.
He said the Gurugram administration is re-negotiating with all parties involved and should work out an “amicable solution” that doesn’t encroach on anyone’s rights. Till then, people from the minority community should offer prayers at their houses and other places of worship.
Speaking to reporters, the 67-year-old Khattar, who is also the first BJP chief minister of the northern state, said, “I have spoken to the police and this issue must be resolved. We don’t have problems with anyone praying at places of worship. Those places have been built for this purpose.
“But these should not be done in the open. We won’t tolerate the custom of offering namaz in the open,” he added.
The chief minister said the administration will work out areas to help free areas and sites belonging to the Waqf that may have been encroached upon.
Namaz offered outdoors on government-owned land has triggered protests by right-wing groups and in November, they went to the extent of spreading dung of cow, a sacred animal for the Hindus, on a prayer site. On other occasions, they targeted praying Muslims with chants of “Jai Shri Ram” (Hail Lord Rama).
In October, tensions flared as groups of people, who were allegedly affiliated to right-wing outfits, disrupted the Muslims’ prayers at an area of the city which resulted in heavy deployment of police personnel in the area. Thirty protesters were detained.
Following this, the Gurugram administration on November 2 said members of the minority community could not pray at eight of the 37 previously agreed sites.
The administration said the permission had been scrapped after “objections” from the local people and said permission would be revoked for other sites as well if similar “objections” were raised.
