DNA TV Show: Digvijaya Singh's post on Kanwar Yatra stirs row

Congress Rajya Sabha MP Digvijay Singh and Indian Union Muslim League national vice president Maulana Kausar Hayat Khan are feeling the pinch of Kanwar Yatra. In a Facebook post, Digvijay has sparked a controversy by attacking the Kanwar Yatra, accusing the government of hypocrisy. He claimed that the Yatra is allowed to cover roads but not Namaz.

The senior Congress leader shared the post in which the picture on the left showed several Kanwars placed on a busy road, while the right one showed a policeman kicking a man offering Namaz. "One country, two laws," Digvijay captioned the post.

What does Digvijay Singh want to say through this picture, and what narrative does he want to set through it. Singh has compared Kanwar Yatra and Namaaz in this post, but the question here is whether it is justified to weigh these two different things on the same scale. Kanwar Yatra takes place once a year, but Namaaz is performed five times a day. Traffic is diverted only 30 days a year for Kanwar Yatra, so is Digvijay similarly advocating diverting traffic five times a day for five times Namaaz.

In this post, on one side, Kanwars are kept on the roadside, and on the other side, a police officer is behaving inappropriately with a young man while offering Namaaz. Is Digvijay Singh inciting a particular religion through these two pictures?

In the month of Shravan, the police have made corridors at various places on the Kanwar route through which Kanwariyas pass. They also stop at some places and take a rest.
In the second picture, a police officer is seen beating a Namaazi while offering Namaz. This picture is of March 2024, when a police officer misbehaved with a person offering Namaaz on the road in Trilokpuri, Delhi.

This police officer was immediately suspended. Legal action was taken against the police officer. It is clear that Digvijay Singh shared this picture out of frustration, because if comparisons have to be made, then compare the Kanwar Yatra that takes place once a year with the Tazia procession taken out during Muharram and the procession taken out on Shab-e-Barat.

Just as separate arrangements are made for the Kanwar Yatra, similar arrangements are made for Muslim events. Traffic is diverted. Roads are closed, but he does not see those pictures. Then he does not post such two-window posts. His selective thinking only raises questions about Sanatan.