CM Eknath Shinde visits Haji Malang Dargah, performs “aarti” Both Senas offer prayers to mark ‘Malanggad Yatra’
CM Eknath Shinde visits Haji Malang Dargah, performs “aarti” Both Senas offer prayers to mark ‘Malanggad Yatra’
On Saturday 24 February, Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde visited Haji Malang Dargah, offered prayers and performed ‘aarti’. Both Senas offered prayers to mark the ‘Malanggad Yatra’.
Prayers were offered as part of ‘Malanggad Yatra’ organised by Hindu groups since the eighties on the same day as the dargah trust organises ‘Urs’ to mark the death anniversary of Baba Haji
Nearly two months after he raked up the issue of “liberation” of the Haji Malang Dargah, which right-wing groups claim is a temple, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde accompanied by his son and Kalyan MP Shrikant Shinde arrived at the dargah in Kalyan and performed “aarti” on Saturday evening.
Interestingly, an hour before Shinde offered prayers at the shrine, Thane MP and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Rajan Vichare too offered prayers on the premises of the shrine.
Even as Shinde visits the shrine every year, this was his first visit to the place after his January 2 statement when he said he would fulfil people’s wish to “liberate” the shrine. While Shinde conducted the “aarti”, those accompanying him raised slogans like ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
The Haji Malang Dargah is located on a hill in the south of Kalyan and is named after the medieval Sufi saint Haji Abd-ul-Rahman, popularly known as Haji Malang Baba. In the mid-80s, the local unit of the Shiv Sena led by Anand Dighe, Shinde’s political mentor, started an agitation claiming that the structure was, in fact, an old Hindu shrine belonging to the Nath Panth, an order of yogis. The Shiv Sena was the first to start a campaign to “reclaim” the said structure, which they refer to as “Malanggad”.
In what appeared to be an attempt by both Senas to claim the baton of Dighe’s agitation, on Saturday the Sena UBT put up a podium near the gates of the shrine with pictures of Dighe, while the swathes leading up to the shrine were lined with posters and flags of the Shinde Sena.
As the shrine turned into a political field for both Senas, devotees of all faith arriving at the dargah remained enthused, despite the two-hour-long trek to the site.
As Hindus and Muslims flocked the shrine in large numbers to celebrate ‘Malanggad Yatra’ and ‘Urs’ respectively, Sudhakar Pathare, DCP (Zone IV), Ulhasnagar, who was in charge of police deployment, said over 1,000 police personnel had been deployed along a 16-km stretch, starting from Nevali police station up to the last peak where the dargah is situated.
“Owing to VIP movement and the large number of Hindus and Muslims arriving at the shrine, we have deployed a large number of police personnel this year and made tactical deployment. Police officials from Thane, Kalyan, Navi Mumbai, Raigad.
News Edit K.V.Raman
