Gujarat cleric held for controversial anti-garba remark

Mangalore Today News Network

Ahmedabad, Sep 24, 2014:  After demands for his arrest by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal, the Gujarat Police on Tuesday picked up Imam Mehdi Hasan for his controversial statement on the Navratri festival and whisked him away to some undisclosed place for interrogation.

The Imam of Thasra in Anand district in central Gujarat had called Navratri, the nine nights of Garba, as the "festival of demons". He had also demanded a ban alleging that "commercialisation of Garba" had completely taken out the religious fervour from it.

Youngsters participating in the festival danced to Bollywood tunes and many went to the events in an inebriated state, the Imam had claimed. He had refused to apologise for his comment stating that he would better prefer to get arrested.

The Imam had made this statement after the VHP and the Bajrang Dal demanded that the Muslims be banned from entering garba venues since it was a Hindu festival and they had nothing to do with it.

Some Hindu organisations owing allegiance to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and its allies raised the demand for ban on the entry of Muslim youths in the garba venues in the state this year.

Hasan, a resident of Rustampura in Thasra taluka, had first shot into limelight when he tried to put a skull cap on Narandra Modi’s head during the latter’s Sadbhavna fast in 2011. Modi, who had refused to wear a skull cap offered to him at the public meeting, had stated that he didn’t believe in the "politics of appeasement."

Two police complaints have been lodged against Hasan at Nadiad (West) and Thasra police stations.

An advocate has also filed a case against the Imam at a Gujarat court after the latter made the controversial remarks. Hasan had gone underground after the right-wing activists demanded his arrest for the statements.

Incidentally, it is the first time that garba festivities have attained a communal dimension. Earlier, the festival always passed off peacefully with secular fervour and never had any religious or social tension in the context of Muslim youths.

 

Courtesy: Indiatoday