Suhail Khan, a software engineer in Sector 39 of Gurugram, missed his regular namaz on Friday. The congregation was almost done with the prayers when the young man rushed to the open ground opposite the State Vigilance Bureau building, a few km away from his office at Unitech Cyber Park.
But he was not alone. Chaos and confusion marked Friday afternoon in the Millennium City for namazis with the district administration deciding to restrict the public spaces for prayers to almost a fourth in view of opposition from right-wing organisations over the past few weeks. “I had been keeping track of it [the controversy over Namaz], but did not know about the merger of the spots. Earlier, I offered Namaz on the pavement just outside the office. It was so convenient, but it was not allowed today,” said Mr. Khan.
What began as opposition to a Muslim prayer congregation at a public land in Sector 53 last month from a handful of young men from surrounding villages, soon snowballed into a full-fledged controversy. Disparate right-wing outfits in the city came together as the Sanyunkt Hindu Sangarsh Samiti and demanded a complete ban on prayers at open public spaces.
Violence unleashed
The protests turned violent with the right-wing outfits disrupting the prayers at several places last Friday despite the presence of the police, saying that the congregations were “unlawful” and a “security threat”.
President of the Indian Islamic Research Centre Matloob Ahmed, a DLF Phase-III resident, sees the protests as an attempt at polarisation in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. “With the Modi government having failed on all fronts including job creation, [curbing] black money and Swachh Bharat, the only agenda left is the Hindu-Muslim divide. How else will you explain a non-issue being made into an issue,” asked Mr. Ahmed, a former journalist.
Arshan, who has been part of the delegations for talks with the administration, said the controversy over offering of namaz in the open stemmed from the fact that the few mosques around were not able to accommodate all those who wanted to offer prayers. “No one wants to offer Namaz on the roads outside in the blistering heat. But where are the mosques,” asked Arshan.
There are only nine mosques in the city. “In new Gurugram, there is only one mosque and that too under litigation,” said Aslam Khan, chairman, Anjuman Jama Masjid at New Gurugram’s Sector 57.
With Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar also saying that namaz be held inside mosques, the local administration is doing a fine balancing act.
Despite the police seeking to reduce the sites for prayers this Friday at a meeting with the Muslim leaders, the civil administration deployed Duty Magistrates at all the existing 76 places on Friday to avoid the impression that they had acquiesced to the demands of the right-wing.
