Member of Parliament from Srinagar, Ruhulla Mehdi, on Tuesday said that the collection of information on mosques, madrassas and individuals associated with their management in Kashmir by authorities reflects a broader “right-wing ideological project” aimed at exercising control over religious practice.
Over the last month, J&K Police across Kashmir has been collecting information on mosques in the Valley, as well as their imams and members of their management committees. The police are also seeking a budget and funding source for these mosques. This is a first major drive to collect the details about mosques and their imams in Kashmir.
Mehdi reacted sharply to the exercise and said it was not merely linked to the Red fort attack in Delhi but was “a project of a particular right-wing ideology” that, according to him, seeks to regulate religions not aligned with the ideology of the RSS.
The senior National Conference leader termed the initiative “an infringement of the constitutional right” to freely practise religion.
“In this country the Constitution guarantees every citizen the freedom to follow their faith without fear or intimidation. This kind of surveillance, intimidation and control is an infringement of the freedom of religion. This is an injustice to the constitution,” he told reporters in Srinagar, when asked about the exercise.
The MP further argued that multiple security and intelligence layers already exist, including the IB, CID, military intelligence and paramilitary agencies, and that citizens’ information is already available through official databases such as Aadhaar.
Seeking additional details specifically from religious preachers, he said, amounted to placing them under an “extra layer of surveillance”, which he viewed as an attempt to intimidate them.
Ruhulla also expressed concern that such measures could be used to influence or control religious discourse in mosques.
“It seems that they are trying to intimidate them. Secondly, they are trying to control the practices of that religion. The preachers of the mosques will be told to read the sermon according to the order of the BJP.
The RSS will send them a sermon on Friday, that this kind of sermon should be preached, and this kind of sermon is not allowed. So, the functioning of the religion should be brought under control,” the MP alleged.
A senior officer said that during the investigation of the ‘white collar terror module,’ which was busted in November, police arrested an Imam who was part of it.
“In the backdrop of this module, it is important to collect data about Imams,” he said.
