All India Muslim Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi has casti-gated the Uttar Pradesh’s BJP-led government for religious discrimination pointing out that while kanwariyas, Hindu pilgrims, are greeted with aerial flower showers, Muslims suffer demolition of homes.
Speaking to the media outside the Indian par-liament, he said, “You are using taxpayers’ money to shower flowers from a helicopter. Very good. We are just saying, show some mercy on us too, treat us equally. If you are showering flowers on them, at least don’t raze our homes,” he said.
The Kānvar (or Kānwar/ Kāvaḍ) Yātrā (Deva-nagari) is an annual pilgrimage of Hindu devotees, known as Kānvariasor “Bhole”, to Hindu pilgrimage places of Haridwar, Gaumukh and Gangotri in Utta-rakhand and Sultanganj in Bihar to fetch waters of Ganges River. Millions of participants gather sacred water from the Ganga and carry it across hundreds of miles to dispense as offerings in their local Śiva shrines,.—KMS
