‘If kanwariyas can be showered with flowers, so should Urs devotees'
On Saturday, representatives of the dargah met UP minister Danish Azad Ansari at the Circuit House in Bareilly and submitted a memorandum. The minister assured them he would take up the demand with the state govt. "This request has been conveyed to both the district administration and the chief minister," said a scholar associated with the dargah.
Farmaan Hasan Khan, national general secretary of Jamaat Raza-e-Mustafa—an organisation linked to the dargah—told TOI: "The govt showers flower petals on kanwar yatra pilgrims.
Lakhs of devotees from around the world come to attend the Urs. We are only asking for equal treatment."
He cited two previous occasions when such a gesture was made. "In 1999, late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee arranged a flower shower during Urs-e-Razvi. Former Union minister Santosh Gangwar delivered his congratulatory message and offered a chadar at the dargah on his behalf. That year, seven quintals of flowers were showered along the Islamia Ground to Mohalla Saudagaran route," Farmaan said.
The second instance, he added, was in 2015, after cleric Maulana Tauqeer Raza secured special permission for the flower shower. This year, the dargah anticipates a footfall of over 25 lakh devotees from across India and abroad.
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