Rihai Manch Condemns Yogi Adityanath’s Decision to Paint Haj House Saffron

Continuing its wave of saffronisation, Yogi Adityanath’s government in UP has now painted the walls of Lucknow’s Haj House with saffron. colour The Haj House is a complex used to provide accommodation to Muslims travelling to Mecca to pay pilgrimage. This move comes three days after the Yogi government reduced the number of holidays allocated to state-recognised madrassas. While the number of holidays for non-Muslim festivals, such as Christmas, Diwali, Dussehra, have increased. Holidays for Ramzan have also been reduced. 

The Rihai Manch, a rights group based in UP, has issued a press release condemning the decision to paint the Haj House saffron and calling out past failures of the state government. Rajeev Yadav, the Secretary General of Rihai Manch, said that Yogi Adityanath is a sadhu who only believes in changing the colour of his clothes, while his heart and intentions remain rotten. He said that the government’s enthusiasm for painting everything saffron shows their disinterest in dealing with any real issues, such as the soaring unemployment in the state. 

The press release says that in the name of Hindutva, anarchy and lawlessness have taken over the country. Saffron clad goons are planting their flag on the Jaipur High Court on one hand, and attacking peaceful Dalits celebrating Bhima Koregaon on the other.

Talking about the recent spate of encounter killings in the state, Anil Yadav, spokesperson of Rihai Manch, said that this is just a ploy to distract the public from the 20,000 “politically motivated” cases that have recently been withdrawn, including a 22-year-old case against Yogi. 

Randhir Singh, a senior advocate in Barabanki, said that the recent encounter killing of Azamgarh resident Rais was suspicious, and he has written a letter to the President to investigate it. 

Prior to this, the Yogi government had painted buses saffron and handed school children saffron school bags. They also came out with saffron-tinged official booklets, and the department of energy announced that electricity to unauthorised colonies would be provided with saffron painted poles.

The Minister of State for Minority Affairs, Mohsin Raza, came out with a statement defending the move. "There is no need for controversy in such things, saffron is an energetic and bright looking colour, the building looks beautiful. The opposition has no big issues against us so they raise inconsequential things.”