Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – Emboldened by Haryana Chief Minister Khattar’s diktat against offering Friday prayer (namaaz) in the open in Gurgaon, a Hindu group is said to have asked Muslims to leave Islam and join Hinduism.
According to a report by news agency PTI on Sunday, Mahaveer Bhardwaj, chairman of the Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti, an amalgam of 32 Hindu outfits, said they can organise a ‘ghar wapsi’ (home coming) event in Leisure Valley in the town for Muslims to “be taken back in their castes and accepted with open arms”.
The Hindutva groups have often been making claims that Indian Muslims’ ancestors were Hindus and hence ask them to “reconvert” to Hinduism.
Once they come into Hindu fold, he added, “they will have their temples to pray and this namaaz issue will end” once and for all.
For the last three months, the Hindutva groups have been attacking Muslims congregating at the sites designated by local authorities for namaaz in Gurgaon. The police have been accused of looking the other way even as the lumpen elements tried to disrupt the namaaz by sloganeering and issuing intimidation.
