Shiv Sena MLA defends burqa distribution, says it's for Muslim women's honour

Mumbai, Sep 13 (IANS) A day after BJP’s strong objection, the Shiv Sena legislator from Byculla in south Mumbai Yamini Jadhav on Friday strongly defended the burqa distribution to Muslim women saying that a public representative should think about what the people of his or her constituency want without looking at their religion.

"If we distributed the burqa for Muslim women's dignity, then why is it objectionable?" she asked.

"My Assembly is cosmopolitan. People of all religions live here. People's representatives should think about what the people want without promoting their own religion. We give them gifts during Diwali but the Muslim sisters are not gifted at all. We thought about it for a year and conducted various checks, including the checking of Aadhaar cards and after that, the burqas were distributed. One thing that is always used and most loved by Muslim women is the burqa. It is their honour and dignity," said Jadhav in explanation after the BJP’s objection and opposition’s attack.

"I have been working for the Muslim community for many years. What is most loved by Muslim women is the burqa. It is an honour for them and therefore I distributed these," she claimed.

Jadhav, who lost the Lok Sabha election to the Shiv Sena UBT nominee Arvind Sawant from Mumbai South, said, "I am being criticised that we are doing appeasement. But for the past many years, I have been working for the Muslim community. Even when the Corona period started, we had delivered Iftar for the Muslims. After the end of Roza, we gave two litres of milk and other materials to the homes of those who are poor, and who are not able to make Sheer Khurma. Why were we not criticized at that time? Because during that time we were there (with Shiv Sena headed by Uddhav Thackeray).’’

"Many activists in Shiv Sena founded by Balasaheb Thackeray belonged to the Muslim community. Minister Shabir Shaikh was also a Muslim. So where did Hindutva get corrupted at that time? Hindutva is inclusive and every citizen living in this Hindustan is considered a Hindu, no matter what religion he belongs to,’’ remarked Jadhav. She further said, ‘’In my constituency, there are people from all communities, including Christians, Buddhists, Tamils, Telugu and I attend every festival of all these religions. This does not mean that my Hindutva is getting hit.’’

“I say yes we love the Muslim religion too. Yashwant Jadhav (her husband) had announced some plans even during July, why no one raised the question at that time?" she asked.