'Cover yourself with tarpaulins if you don't want colours this Holi': UP BJP leader tells Muslims

Lucknow: Days after a senior cop’s remarks that Holi is celebrated once in a year while there are 52 ‘jumas’ (Fridays), an Uttar Pradesh minister suggested that the Muslims should cover themselves with ‘tarpaulins’ if they wanted to avoid colours on Holi.

Not wanting to be left behind, another BJP lawmaker said that separate wards should be made for the Muslims in the hospitals as they have problems in living with the Hindus.

‘’Meri salah hai Muslim panth walon ko ki woh ya to Holi k agle din namaz padhen ya tirpal ka hijab pahen kar bahar nikle.....unki safed topi and safed kapde bache rahenge,’’ (I suggest to the Muslims to either offer Friday prayers a day after Holi or cover themselves with tarpaulins....it will protect their white skull caps and clothes from Holi colours), Raghuraj Singh, who enjoys status of a minister of state, said.

He said that the Holi revellers did not bother how far the colours were thrown while celebrating the festival.

Singh also said that he supported the suggestion by a local Muslim BJP leader that a Ram Temple should be constructed inside the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campus. ‘’I will donate all my wealth for it,’’ he added.

Another BJP MLA from Ballia Ketki Singh said that she would urge chief minister Yogi Adityanath to order construction of separate wards for the treatment of Muslim patients in the hospitals in the state.

‘’Muslims have problems with everything..... Be it Ram Navami, Holi, Diwali or Durga Puja....they may also have problems in medical treatment with us....they should have separate wards for treatment in the hospitals in that case,’’ she said.

Barely a few days back, Anuj Chaudhary, circle officer of Sambhal, which was witness to large scale violence during the survey of a Mosque last year in which four persons were killed, had asked the Muslims to remain indoors on the Holi day if they felt their religious sentiments were hurt.

‘’Holi is celebrated only once in a year while Juma comes every Friday....if the Muslims think that the Holi colours hurt their religious sentiments then they should remain indoors on that day’’, Chaudhary had said. Adityanath had also supported his remarks.