Ranchi, A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Jharkhand High Court on Tuesday against allotment of a room for offering prayers in the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly building. Petitioner Bhairav Singh has sought quashing of the notification issued in this regard by the Assembly Secretariat on September 2.
Rajeev Kumar, counsel for petitioner Bhairav Singh said, “We have filed the petition seeking quashing of the notification in which a separate room has been allotted for Namaz as it violates the preamble of the Constitution, which clearly states secularism.” It has been described as one of the guardian principles of the Constitution. The state cannot help to protect or propagate any religion. The Legislative Assembly is a law making body and a publicly funded body.
Namaz room allocation has created a political storm in the state. Opposition BJP is obstructing the proceedings of the monsoon session . Party MLAs performed Kirtan outside the House on Monday and recited Hanuman Chalisa inside the Well of the House on Tuesday. They are demanding either cancellation of the notification or giving a place of worship for them.
The ruling government, however, is defending the notification saying it is not a new thing and it was present in the Jharkhand Assembly even when the BJP was in power. The BJP has been protesting in different parts of the state since Monday over this issue. The ruling alliance of JMM, Congress and RJD is refusing to listen to the opposition on this issue. At the same time, BJP will organize a march till the assembly today.
Jharkhand BJP President and Rajya Sabha member Deepak Prakash said, “Today’s protest is against the ‘perennial appeasement politics of the ruling government’. Allocation of Namaz room is not the first case. Recently they have included Urdu in the regional language paper in the examination to be conducted for jobs in the new employment policy. We have no problem with it but they have removed Hindi from it. Two days ago a Congress MLA supported the Taliban but the party leadership did not take any action against it. If they were fair and secular, they should have provided places of worship to Hindus, Christians, Jains apart from Sarna and Jatra place for tribals.’
(Agencies)
