Gurdwara Committee Offers Space for Namaz to Gurugram Muslims

In the last couple of months, rightwing Hindutva groups have been organising protests at designated namaz sites. The city administration has also withdrawn permission to pray at eight of them.

New Delhi: Amidst rightwing Hindutva groups’ efforts to disrupt namaz at designated sites in Gurugram, a gurdwara committee has offered their premises for Muslims to offer prayers in, Indian Express has reported.

Sherdil Singh Sidhu, who heads the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha at Gurugram’s Sabzi Mandi told the news outlet that five gurdwaras at Sadar Bazar, Sector 39, Sector 46, Model Town and Jacobpura have been offered to members of the Muslim community for namaz.

“A gurdwara is the house of the Guru. People from all communities are welcome to come here and pray. If the Muslim community is facing problems in praying at designated sites, they can offer prayers in the gurdwaras,” Sidhu said.

Sidhu also noted that the decision comes on the eve of the birth anniversary of the first Sikh guru, Guru Nanak Dev, on Friday, November 19. The committee has requested that those offering namaz pray in smaller batches of 30-40 people to maintain COVID-19 protocols in the buildings which can otherwise accommodate over 2,000 people.

Members of the Jamiat Ulama have met with the committee and accepted the offer, which they called “gracious.” They have decided to offer namaz at the gurdwaras at Sector 39 and Sadar Bazar on Friday.

“This is a very welcome step and will go a long way in promoting harmony among communities,” Jamiat head Mufti Mohammad Saleem told Express.

A shop owner in Sector 12, Akshay Yadav, has also been offering his vacant premises for namaz. ”

“I offered the place in a heartbeat,” Yadav told Scroll.in, “and I will continue to do so today and tomorrow, again and again.”

Supporters and members of Hindutva groups have been protesting at namaz spots across Gurugram each Friday for over two months now. One of the hotspots is Sector 12, where Muslims offer namaz on public land with permission from the administration.

Initially promising to uphold the rights of those offering namaz at Gurugram’s 37 designated sites, police arrested nearly 30 rightwing Hindutva protesters in late October. However, within days, the Gurugram administration withdrew permission for namaz to be offered at eight of the 37 designated sites.

These sites had been designated first in 2018, after pitched campaigns by rightwing groups then.

On November 5, a Govardhan Puja was organised by a Hindutva organisation called the Sanyukt Hindu Sangharsh Samiti, at a namaz site on a Friday amidst considerable media attention. BJP leader Kapil Mishra, who had threatened violence against anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protesters ahead of the Delhi riots of 2020, was present at the event. Among slogans heard at the puja was, “Goli maro saalon ko, Hindu ke gadaaron ko (‘shoot the traitors of Hindus’).