‘Ishwar Allah tero naam’: Protest erupts over bhajan at Vajpayee tribute event in Patna, BJP’s Shahnawaz Hussain calls it ‘height of intolerance’

The protesters, of which there were around 50 at the event held at the Bapu Sabhagar auditorium in Patna, were not identified. Former Union minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey, who had organised the event along with the NGO Dinker Shodh Sansthan, said the incident “should not have happened”.

The event, “Main Atal Rahunga”, was meant to be a platform to recall the contributions of the former PM on the occasion of his birth anniversary. Apart from Choubey, who was also a minister in the Vajpayee government, there were three others who had served as Union ministers under Vapayee’s premiership – Dr C P Thakur, Sanjay Paswan, and Shahnawaz Hussain.

Folk singer Devi told The Indian Express that the organisers asked her to sing a bhajan at the event. “I was also also invited to get felicitated on the occasion. There was a request from the organisers to sing a bhajan. As we had gathered to commemorate Vajpayee ji, I thought it befitting to sing Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite bhajan, Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram,” she said.

She explained that everything went smoothly as she began the bhajan, “But when I started singing the stanza beginning, ‘Ishwar Allah tero naam’, there was a protest from a section of the audience. I had to stop the song immediately. After Ashwini Kumar Choubey pacified the crowd, I sang a Chhath song… But I was dismayed at the protest against Gandhi’s favourite bhajan that has been sung and heard across the world with utmost respect. What happened was unfortunate.”

Shahnawaz Hussain, who had been the youngest Cabinet colleague of Vajpayee, said: “I had quoted Atal ji during my address. He used to say, ‘chhote dil se koi bada nahi hota (no one makes it big with a small heart)’. The protest of the bhajan is the height of intolerance. I felt too embarrassed and ashamed.”

Sanjay Paswan said the protest against the bhajan was unacceptable. “We are living in world of assimilative ideologies of GLAD (Gandhi, Lohia, Ambedkar and Deendayal Upadhyay).”

Condemning the incident, Choubey said: “What happened should not have happened. It was not at all what civility demands. I had said the same thing from the stage while trying to pacify the crowd.”