This week, the Aam Aadmi Party opened its office in Jaipur in preparation for next year’s elections. To their bad luck, they did so with Hindu rituals which has infuriated its Muslim workers.
Several Muslim workers association with AAP has come forward to criticize the party’s move.
As per a ETV Bharat report, the AAP inaugurated the state headquarters building in Jaipur on Thursday. The performed Havan; Sunderkand of Ramayana was recited and Hindu devotional songs were sung. It all lasted for four hours. Hundreds of AAP workers and leaders, including state election-in-charge and MLA Vinay Mishra attended the function.
However, it earned the ire of Muslim workers.
Rashid Hasan, an AAP worker, said, “The constitution says that all religions are equal. Every religion gets equal respect. Then why ‘Deen’ (Islam) was not given equal respect? This is the first question. Secondly, this was an office function. This was not any religious function. The inauguration program of the office was turned into a religious program. If you invite religions for making it a religious program, then we will be the first one to reach there. We don’t have any problem with anyone’s religion. But ignoring others is beyond tolerance. It is not accepted.”
Another AAP member Haji Mubarak Ali said, “We did not disturb those rituals. We had a meeting yesterday. People appointed four of us as representatives. This matter is being discussed in the party groups. It is communicated to them all in person as well as on the telephone that this is not a Gandhian way, this is not an Ambedkarite way either. Nor this is a constitutional way. This is a political party. This is not the Dharma of a political party.”
He further said, “We have inaugurated our offices in the past at the hands of a rickshaw driver. Right from the inception of this party, we have been its member and we will be the members unless we are expelled. It is possible that if we raise our voices, we will be expelled and our voices will be crushed. But we are all prepared for that too. I have been the General Secretary of AAP’s Jaipur unit.”
When AAP’s state election in-charge and MLA Vinay Mishra was asked a question about this, he said, “Let us not look at it through a religious lens. Today we inaugurated the office. Whenever we inaugurate something, we do it by the set traditions and puja, etc. So we have done it in that way. We recited the Sunderkand because we the members of the Aam Aadmi Party are devotees of Lord Hanuman. Everywhere we take Lord Hanuman and his blessings with us. None of our tasks succeeds without him. So we recited the Sunderkand today. We have done the puja for purification. Besides, we have also offered a Chadar in the Ajmer Dargah and distributed Laddus in Gurudwara.”
