Namaz row: Mumbai and Gurugram 30-years apart

Ironically, a Sena-BJP govt had solved the problem in Mumbai by allowing mosques extra floor area

Praying in the open is not a Hindu tradition; even praying in temples is not binding on Hindus. Let alone the great sants, any number of ordinary Hindus would tell you that God resides in your heart.

Could it be that the small group of Hindus in Gurugram who conducted a Govardhan puja on an open ground last Friday do not feel the presence of Lord Krishna (Govardhan) in their hearts? Or did they want to use the religious occasion to prove a political point? For, unlike devout Hindus, instead of conforming to the mahurat of the puja, they timed it to coincide with the Friday afternoon namaz that's usually performed on that very ground. Was this worship or a ploy to stake their claim on that spot and keep out "outsiders", their word for Gurugram's Muslims who gather there to pray every Friday?

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This public puja aroused vivid memories of the maha aartis on Mumbai's roads 30 years ago by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Shiv Sena. The city was still coming to terms with the killings of 253 of its residents in five days of communal violence that started hours after the Babri Masjid was demolished when I was informed by an RSS/BJP veteran that they were planning to start maha aartis in the open. Their 'campaign' was meant to pressure the government to ban namaz on the roads and azaan on loudspeakers.

That their claim was bogus became evident from the very first maha aarti on December 26, 1992. It was conducted in an area where namaz was never held on the roads. Muslims there were few, and hence easily accommodated in the area's mosques. But what dictated the choice of location was that it was a Sena stronghold.

That first maha aarti signalled what was to follow. Senior police officers allowed it despite the inspector in charge of the area alerting them that the event would be political. An anti-Muslim pamphlet was distributed there, but no action was taken.

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Intelligence reports warned that maha aartis could end up in attacks on Muslims, but Chief Minister Sudhakar Naik refused to ban them, insisting they were religious gatherings. The BN Srikrishna Commission of Inquiry into the Bombay riots revealed that it was with the blessings of the government and senior police officers that this organised mobilisation of "Hindu" strength, aimed at subjugating the city's Muslims, was carried out. Maha aarti organisers and participants were allowed full rein until after the January 1993 riots ended, whether to block highways, make incendiary speeches or attack Muslims.

Mumbai then had a few hundred mosques, and Namazis spilt out in the open outside about 25 of them. In some areas where namaz was not held on the roads, maha aarti organisers forced mosques to stop using loudspeakers for azaan.

Circumstances in Gurugram today couldn't be more different. Yet, the process unfolding is the same: the police and government are allowing Hindus to be mobilised through bogus religious means by known rabble-rousers. It seems these days you don't need a riot to show Muslims their place.

Visuals from Gurugram show Muslims performing their mandatory namaz ablutions on land littered with pebbles and mud. The city's estimated 500,000 Muslims don't have enough mosques. This was the problem in Mumbai too, and ironically, it was solved by a Sena-BJP government three years after the riots by granting extra FSI to mosques, a long pending demand that the Congress governments had never sanctioned.

Will ML Khattar's government allow mosques to be built or expanded in Gurugram? Unlikely. Even before May 2014, when Hindutvawadis across India got rejuvenated, the construction of a new mosque outside a Muslim area anywhere in the country had become an enterprise fraught with risk, entailing protests and court battles. Those performing Govardhan pujas in the open may not even bother to move court; their protests have already resulted in what the VHP correctly hailed as a "surrender" – Gurugram authorities have reduced the designated namaz sites.

In March 2002, after the Gujarat violence, an RSS resolution had declared: "Let the Muslims understand that their real safety lies in the goodwill of the majority." But which majority? There's enough evidence that, like in Mumbai, this goodwill exists among ordinary Hindus in Gurugram. Till 2018, namaz was being offered in public for 21 years with no objections. And, when 37 namaz sites were designated in 2018 by mutual understanding, at least one belonged to a Hindu.

It is up to Haryana's CM, himself an RSS man, to decide who constitutes this majority.

(The writer is a journalist based in Mumbai)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.