“It has never happened earlier. Some Kanwariyas also go to mosques to pay obeisance. India is a country where everyone takes care of every religion and caste. Today mosques are being covered, what will happen if temples are covered in this manner tomorrow?” he asked.Meanwhile, Uttarakhand Congress vice president Suryakant Dhasmana said that the move to cover mosques on the route of Kanwar Yatra was a “contempt of the Supreme Court”.”The order to put curtains on mosques and mazars on the kanwar yatra route in Haridwar district, whoever has issued it, goes against the Supreme Court which has put a stay on an order which asked hotel and restaurant owners and fruit vendors on the route to display their names, caste and religious identity,” Dhasmana said.Attacking the ruling BJP in the state, he said it has not learnt from its electoral defeats in Badrinath, Manglaur, Chitrakoot and Prayagraj.”The message it has missed is that the entire country is one. BJP’s divisive and discriminatory politics has been rejected. But the party is not learning,” Dhasmana said.However, following criticism, the clothes covering the mosques were removed by the evening on Friday.”We received orders from the railway police post to remove the curtains. That is why we have come to remove these,” said Danish Ali, appointed as a special police officer (SPO) by the administration for the yatra’s management.This is not the first time mosques had been covered by the government during Hindu festivities.In March this year, ahead of the Holi festival, several mosques in UP were covered with tarpaulin sheets, which the authorities dubbed as a move “to prevent them from being smeared with colours, which could affect communal harmony.”According to reports, this has remained a custom in UP since Yogi Adityanath came to power.In April this year, a mosque in Hyderabad was also covered in white clothes ahead of the Ram Navami procession passing through the route.Several mosques and Muslim localities, across different states in the country were attacked by Hindutva groups during the Ram Navami procession last year.(With inputs from PTI)
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