Samajwadi Party (SP) MP Dimple Yadav found herself in the middle of a political row on Monday over her visit to a mosque in Delhi last week.
While the BJP’s minority cell chief objected to Dimple not covering her head during the visit, a group of women MPs from the NDA showed solidarity with the SP leader following a Delhi-based cleric’s allegedly offensive comments about her. The Manipuri MP, in response, said the show of solidarity would have been “more meaningful” had the ruling alliance leaders “stood with the women of Manipur”.
On July 21, SP president Akhilesh Yadav, Dimple, and 10 other party MPs visited the Parliament Street mosque after the Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day. The SP’s Rampur MP, Mohibbullah Nadvi, is the mosque’s imam. According to BJP minority cell chief Jamal Siddiqui, it was a political meeting that did not conform to mosque rules.
“Akhilesh Yadav was wearing a Samajwadi cap at the mosque, his wife, behan (sister) Dimple Yadav, was sitting in an area where the entry of women is prohibited. And her attire did not conform to mosque rules. We opposed all that. And we objected to Maulana (SP MP Mohibbullah) taking them there and making the mosque an undeclared office of the Samajwadi Party. So, he should be removed from the position of Imam of that mosque,” Siddiqui told The Indian Express.
Asked why he thought Dimple did not follow the rules with regard to her attire, he said she did not cover her head. “No one can enter a mosque wearing a saree,” Siddiqui said.
NDA MPs, meanwhile, protested against remarks by a cleric, Maulana Sajid Rashidi, about Dimple during a television debate last week. The MPs held a demonstration outside Parliament, accusing the SP leadership of remaining silent due to “appeasement politics”.
“We are raising our voice against the way a woman’s dignity was targeted based on communalism,” said Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) MP Shambhavi Choudhary. “The party may have any ideology, but we must come together for the dignity of women. What is most shameful is that Akhilesh Yadav did not raise his voice in support of his wife for the sake of his politics … The way Sajid Rashidi has spoken about Dimple Yadav is not acceptable … Samajwadi Party’s politics is completely on appeasement.. The NDA always stands for the cause of women’s dignity.”
BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj told reporters, “Why is the entire Opposition silent? Why is Dimple Yadav’s party silent? Why has her husband (Akhilesh Yadav) not yet spoken against this statement? … Is the politics of appeasement more important than the dignity of a woman MP?”
Her party colleague and Rajya Sabha MP Dharamshila Gupta said she was “shocked that the Samajwadi Party leaders are silent”. “His (Akhilesh Yadav) wife has been insulted, and he is silent. You should leave politics if you cannot stand for the women of your house … The maulana will have to apologise to all the women MPs,” she said.
Responding to them, Dimple said the show of solidarity would have been “more meaningful” had they “stood with the women of Manipur”.
“It would have been better if they had protested against the Manipur violence, the footage of which appeared on social media. It would have been better had they staged demonstrations and stood with the women of Manipur. And, the way the leaders of the BJP and senior ministers made statements from the stage on our Army officers during Operation Sindoor, it would have been better if they (NDA) stood with them,” said the SP MP.
SP spokesperson Ashutosh Verma alleged that this controversy had been engineered as the BJP was facing “tough questions on national issues”. “The SP is not silent on this issue. The party will take legal action,” he said. An FIR was registered against Rashidi at a police station in Lucknow on Sunday evening based on a complaint of a local resident.
— With PTI inputs
