Mumbai: A BJP leader in Maharashtra has volunteered to fund loudspeakers to play the Hanuman Chalisa in public locations, igniting a heated campaign against right-wing political figures’ advocacy of the Azaan, or Islamic call to prayer.
“Anyone who needs a loudspeaker to install it in a temple can ask us for free! All Hindus should have one voice! Jai Shri Ram! Har Har Mahadev!” Mohit Kamboj, a billionaire bullion trader and among the richest BJP leaders, tweeted.
The offer comes as the BJP and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), led by Raj Thackeray, press for a ban on loudspeakers playing the Azaan in mosques.
Following Raj Thackeray’s call to arms at a rally in Mumbai over the weekend on the occasion of the Marathi New Year festival Gudi Padwa, MNS leaders in different regions of Maharashtra have started playing the Hanuman Chalisa over loudspeakers.
The controversy might assist the MNS and the BJP corner the Shiv Sena, which runs Maharashtra in coalition with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress, just ahead of elections for India’s richest municipal body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation or BMC.
While Bal Thackeray, the party’s founder, was one of the first to advocate for banning loudspeakers outside mosques that broadcast prayer calls five times a day, the party has tempered its hardline Hindutva stance since joining the coalition in 2019.
However, Raj Thackeray, who left the party in 2005 due to a feud with Bal Thackeray’s son, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, has stuck to his hard-line stance.
The NCP’s Dilip Walse Patil, Maharashtra’s Home Minister, has slammed the recent provocations, claiming they are meant to divide society.
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut too hit out at the BJP and MNS. “Raj Thackeray was talking about taking down the loudspeakers installed in mosques yesterday. First, see in which all BJP ruled states Azaan has been stopped, loudspeakers removed from mosques… This is Maharashtra, where law of the land is followed,” he said on Sunday.
Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi, meanwhile, has taken a curious stance on the controversy, launching a juice stall, claiming that Muslims are ready to welcome people playing Hanuman Chalisa and will be offering them drinks.
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