On March 28, several news outlets including News Nation reported that Muslim men entered a Hindu place of worship and interrupted aarti in Maharasthra’s Malanggad. At 4:13 minutes into a six-minute broadcast, News Nation showed two structures and claimed that the dargah on left is Baba Malag’s tomb while on the right (pointing at a blue shed) is Machindranath’s tomb.
On April 6, Alt News reached out to News Nation editor-in-chief Sanjay Kulshrestha, Maharashtra chief Vikas Shrivastav and reporter Pankaj Mishra who had visited Malanggad. Kulshrestha refused to speak with us and the broadcast was quietly taken down from across social media accounts of News Nation. A downloaded copy can be watched below. “On the hill, we have Baba Malag’s Mazar and right next to it lays Machindranath ji’s samadhi which means both Hindu and Muslim communities were present…” the anchor can be heard saying.https://player.vimeo.com/video/533944354
Below is a screenshot of a tweet that has also been taken down. “Why did namazi enter samadhi during aarti? Who raised Islamic slogans during aarti? What did you get after interrupting the aarti, bhai jaan? Battle in samadhi in Maharashtra! Why was Allah-o-Akbar chanted in Baba’s samadhi?” read the tweet.
Background
In a report published on April 3, Alt News had found that members of the Muslim community indeed interrupted an aarti performed on Holi, March 28, when Muslim festival Shab e-Barat was also observed. However, Muslims did not enter a temple.
The conflict took place at Haji Malang which has historically been referred to as dargah by the Government of India. In 1986, Shiv Sena claimed that the dargah was the site of the 700-year-old Machindranath temple. Since then, a section of the Hindu community regards the dargah as a Hindu place of worship.
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