The provision of a separate room for offering Namaz in the Jharkhand Assembly has triggered a political row with the opposition BJP alleging appeasement politics while the Congress hits back at the saffron party. Notably, the Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha Secretariat issued an order on September 2 in which it has allotted room number TW 348, in the new Assembly building for offering the Namaz.

This led to a war of words between the BJP and the ruling party leaders. “I’m not against Namaz room but then they should also build a temple at Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha premises. I even demand that Hanuman Temple should be set up there. If Speaker approves, we can build the temple at our own cost,” said former speaker and BJP leader CP Singh.

Former chief minister and Leader of Opposition Babu Lal Marandi said that temple of democracy should stay as the temple of democracy only. “The temple of democracy should stay as the temple of democracy only. There should not be a place for any prayer. They have done a wrong work. Tomorrow, there may be demand from other people as well. Devotees of Ram will ask separate place for Ram puja, someone will demand for Krishna, someone will demand for Shiva, someone for Hanuman, Sikh will demand Gurudwara…then the temple of democracy won’t remain a temple of democracy. We want to tell the assembly speaker to not resort to appeasement politics. They should not lay a foundation of the wrong tradition,” said the BJP leader.

However, the Congress hit back at the BJP saying ‘Vinas kale, viparit buddhi’ (when one’s doom approaches, their intelligence goes against their interest). “Vinas Kale, Viparit Buddhi. This is not an appeasement politics. This is a question of faith in any religion. Assembly is a temple of democracy and it has been our tradition to make arrangements for the Muslim community to offer namaz. For Hindus, people pray where there are idols, Christians pray in churches. BJP has gone mad. Appeasement politics will be the last nail in their coffin. If you leave three-four issues like Hindustan-Pakistan, Hindu-Muslim, Ganga cleaning and cow, they will not have any topic to do politics. They should respect this decision,” said Congress leader Alok Dubey.

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