Bengaluru: Muslim prayer centre at Railway Station restored as porters' retiring room after protest
Bengaluru, Feb 2: The retiring room for porters which was converted by some into a Muslim prayer centre at the Bengaluru city Railway Station has been restored to its previous state, Railway authorities said.
The issue had snowballed into a controversy after a viral video in social media claimed there was a 'mosque' inside the Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna Bengaluru City Railway Station.
"The porters unilaterally decided to restore the porter retiring room into its previous form as they did not want to give any communal twist to the entire episode," a senior Railway official of the South Western Railway said.
The video purportedly showed the prayer hall painted in green and Muslims offering prayer there.
A Hindu right wing organisation staged a demonstration at the Railway Station on Monday demanding restoration of the porter retiring room into its previous form.
They also questioned how the room was allowed to be converted into a 'Mosque' and warned the officials that they will raise the matter with the Railway ministry authorities.
Following the demonstration, the entire room was brought back to its previous form and the porters started taking rest there as done earlier.
The SWR official said the porters themselves agreed not to disrupt peace and cordiality amongst themselves.
"The prayer hall was an internal arrangement of the porters and no one had any issue. Now again for the sake of peace and harmony they unilaterally restored the retiring room. We didn't have any role in its restoration, the official claimed.
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Catholic Bishops' body slams Bhagwat's remarks
New Delhi: The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India on Thursday slammed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for his reported remark that Pranab Mukherjee, when he was President, had said tribals would turn "anti-national" if there is no "ghar wapsi"Catholic Bishops.'
In a statement issued here, CBCI, a body of Catholic Bishops, referred to reports which said Bhagwat, at an event on Monday, claimed that Mukherjee, while he was President had appreciated ghar wapsi and told him that had it not been for the Sangh's work on reconversion, a section of Adivasis would have turned "anti-national".The CBCI called the report "shocking".
"Fabricated personal conversation being attributed to a former president of India and its posthumous publication with the vested interest of an organization with questionable credibility raises a grave issue of national importance," the CBCI claimed.
"Is it not the violent ghar wapsi program of VHP and other similar organizations, curtailing the exercise of freedom of conscience of economically deprived tribals, the real anti-national activity?" it asked.
'Ghar wapsi' is a term used by the RSS and affiliated organisations to refer to reconversion of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism, based on the belief that they were originally Hindus before converting to other religions.
The CBCI also questioned why Bhagwat did not speak about it while Mukherjee was alive.
"We, the 2.3 percent of Indian citizens who are Christians feel extremely hurt by such manipulated and motivated propaganda unleashed," it said.
In a post on X following the statement issued by CBCI, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said, "Speak up. This is a start!"
"Bishops body have issued a statement condemning remarks made by Dr Mohan Bhagwat and RSS for defaming the Christian community," he said.
O'Brien added that they should ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi more questions, including why Christmas Day has been turned into "Good Governance Day".
The TMC leader, in a blogpost earlier this month, had said "hard questions" must be asked to the government with regards to the Christian community, including why the FCRA has been 'weaponised', and why has Manipur been 'ignored'.
