PrashantNews
After the nameplate issue, the Uttarakhand government on Friday landed in a new controversy with the Haridwar district administration covering some mosques and mazars with big white sheets on the Kanwar Yatra route.
The move immediately came under fire with Congress leaders and Muslim clerics slamming the state government. “This is a very dolorous decision and I appeal to the Chief Minister (Pushkar Singh Dhami) to withdraw it,” said former Chief Minister Harish Rawat.
Buckling under the pressure, the covers were removed the sheets which look like cricket sight screens within hours.
However, wine shops in Haridwar district on Kanwar route would remain covered by big sheets till the culmination of the Kanwar yatra next month, top officials said.
The controversy arose when all of a sudden a big canvas of white sheet was erected on the gate of a mosque located in Ramnagar Colony of Jwalapur and a mazar near Durga Chowk in Haridwar. This was for the first time that mosques and shrines were covered during the Kanwar Yatra.
The sources said Chief Minister Dhami was taken aback when he heard about the new controversy and ordered the removal of the sheets.
The Maulanas of the shrines and mosques on the Kanwar Yatra route were shocked by this decision.
Shakeel Ahmed, the manager of the mazar located in Jwalapur, said that no one talked to him in this regard. He said that Kanwariyas had been passing through Jawalapur for many decades during which they usually rest in the shade of the tree outside the shrine and drink tea etc. He said that he did not know why it was done this time.
The state tourism and religious affairs minister Satpal Maharaj said that mosques and mazars have been covered to ensure smooth conduct of the Kanwar Yatra. “Mosques and mazars were covered on the Kanwar route only,” he said.