Varanasi: Seven people were arrested and released after a short period by the Varanasi police for chanting the Hanuman Chalisa in front of a mosque in a college in Uttar Pradesh. This event took place at a time when some of ‘the students were performing their Islamic prayers, otherwise known as namaz. Police said that the detentions were conducted on Wednesday, while the protest action occurred on Tuesday.
Student’s union president Vivekanand Singh defended the reading of Hanuman Chalisa by asserting that it was a protest against those people whom he called outsiders who congregate at the mosque to offer prayers on the college campus. Singh pointed out that although students at the college are allowed to pray or worship either in the mosque or temple, they are against outsiders using college land for religious functions.
Citing this, Vidush Saxena, Additional Commissioner of Police in Varanasi Cantt, said that even if the students have withdrawn from the Ghats, they were clear on their stand that they would recite Hanuman Chalisa near the mosque. For some time, the authorities tried to reduce tensions, but the police arrested the students, although the students were released in the evening.
That question concerning the establishment of a mosque and its location in the college has been a question for some time now. College principal D.K. Singh said that in 2018, a notice was issued stating that the mosque was given to the Waqf Board by the Nawab of Tonk, and the land was Waqf land. The college administration had challenged its construction given that the college trust owned the piece of land for the mosque construction, thus it cannot be traded.
However, construction work at the mosque was stopped in 2022 after the college complained to the authorities, said Deputy Commissioner of Police Chandrakant Meena.
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