The Islamo-leftist cabal that relentlessly vilifies Hindu festivals as regressive, dogmatic, misogynistic and whatnot, also wants to appropriate and secularise Hindu festivals to enforce unasked ‘inclusivity’. As the Hindu festival of Navratri is approaching and preparations are on for Garba events across the country, the Islamo-leftist coterie has turned on its activism mode for ensuring unrestricted participation of Muslims, primarily Muslim men, in Garba programs.
In the wake of increasing incidents of Muslim crimes during Garba events, the organisers have started restricting the entry of non-Hindus to the Garba Pandals. This year, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad gave a call to ban Muslims from attending garba and dandiya events during Navratri across Maharashtra.
The VHP has issued guidelines for Garba organisers, calling for Aadhaar card checking of participants, applying Tilak on the forehead of entrants, among other measures.
The Hindu rights group stated that their decision was not directed against any religious community but was only a precautionary measure to protect and preserve the Dharmic character of Garba.
However, the VHP’s call triggered an outrage. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut, who claims to be a champion of Hindutva, gave an absurd statement opposing restrictions on the entry of Muslims in Garba events.
Raut suggested that somehow because Muslims also ‘contributed’ to India’s freedom struggle and cultural struggle, they should not be prevented from participating in Navratri events.
“Muslims also made a significant contribution to this country’s freedom struggle and cultural struggle. Mohan Bhagwat goes abroad and delivers speeches stating that ‘there should be no differences between Muslims and Hindus in our country… yet here, his people engage in this kind of behaviour? Mohan Bhagwat ought to issue a statement on this,” Raut said during a media interaction on 6th September.
#WATCH | Mumbai, Maharashtra | On the guidelines issued by the VHP regarding the upcoming Navratri events in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut says, "…Muslims also made a significant contribution to this country's freedom struggle and cultural struggle. Mohan… pic.twitter.com/3Ek6Fgda8X
— ANI (@ANI) September 6, 2026
Not only anti-BJP political leaders but some of those aligned with the BJP have also invoked ‘inclusivity’ and ‘Constitution’ to oppose a ban on Muslims in Garba events.
In this vein, Union Minister Ramdas Athawale said that the VHP’s call goes against the Constitution and its guarantee of equal rights for people of all religions.
“I feel this stand is not right because India runs on the Constitution. The Constitution given by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar ensures justice to all religions. Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, Lingayats, Parsis and people of several other faiths live in India, and the Constitution seeks to protect all religions,” he said.
“It is not good to say that Muslims should not attend garba. Hindu and Muslim communities need to come together and work for the country,” the minister added.
Similarly, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s wife Amruta Fadnavis has also opposed the VHP’s call to Garba organisers to restrict entry of Muslims in the events.
“Our festival is inclusive; if any Muslim wants to enjoy Garba, it should not be a problem,” Amruta Fadnavis said.
VIDEO | Chandrapur: “Our festival is inclusive, if any Muslim wants to enjoy Garba, it should be not be a problem”, says Amruta Fadnavis, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis’ wife.
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) September 9, 2026
(Full video available on PTI Videos – https://t.co/d8jp61yd2p) pic.twitter.com/Ap2nbNL88N
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party MLA Rais Shaikh argued that banning Muslims from Garba events goes against the Constitution.
“This is cultural policing by VHP and Bajrang Dal. VHP’s ‘fatwa’ banning Muslims is against the Constitution and the state government should take note of this directive because such extremist positions can potentially give rise to a law-and-order situation,” he said.
Does banning Muslims from participating in Hindu religious celebrations like Garba go against the Constitution? Does the ‘inclusivity’ argument even make any sense?
Invoking the Constitutional guarantee of equal rights for all religions is utterly nonsensical in the present context. Muslims are not guaranteed any Constitutional right to force themselves to participate in the celebration of Hindu festivals. They do not have any right to participate in Hindu festivals against the wishes of the Hindu community. They have as much the right to practice their own religion as Hindus or any other religious community have in India.
However, this does not mean Muslims can, regardless of their intentions and motives, be allowed unrestricted access to Garba or Durga Pandals. Our Constitution allows Hindus to celebrate their festivals without having to mandatorily ensure participation of non-Hindus.
Besides, this whole ‘inclusivity’ argument is also not appropriate. Yes, Hindu festivals, including Durga Puja and Garba, are inclusive; they bring people, specifically devotees of Maa Durga, together. However, this inclusivity is not by default extended to Muslims or Christians or any community or individuals who are not adherents of Hinduism or devotees of Maa Durga.
Remember the mayhem Islamists unleashed in 2022 when then BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma merely quoted a fact stated in the Islamic texts? Sharma had made no insulting remarks or said anything on her own but simply quoted the Islamic text, yet Muslims rioted across the country, raised Sar Tan Se Juda slogans, and burned her effigy because her ‘tone’ was perceived as disrespectful.
Why is it that those who cannot even stand a Hindu, the Kafir of the highest order, even uttering the facts mentioned in Islamic texts, want to participate in festivals of Hindus?
Why would those who kill a Hindu youth over a drop of colour splashing on them during Holi want to participate in a dance performed in honour of Maa Durga?
Why do those who don’t want to say Bharat Mata ki Jai and sing Vande Mataram because it glorifies Maa Durga want to dance in honour of Maa Durga during Navratri?
Why is it that only Muslim men want to participate in Garba celebrations and not Muslim women? Does Islam restrict only Muslim women from partaking in festivities of non-Muslims? Muslim women should stay in Burqa or hijab, but Muslim men can dance in honour of Maa Durga?
What makes anyone think that those who do not want to entertain the idea of Muslim women offering namaz in mosques just as men do believe in inclusivity?
Why are Hindu festivals burdened with the idea of accommodating and promoting ‘inclusivity’?
Garba is sadhana of Maa Durga, not a government scheme Muslims have a right over
The performance of Garba is essentially a religious affair. It is not a party. It is not a cultural event that anybody, regardless of their faith, can attend, shake a leg, enjoy and move on.
Garba is strictly a Dharmic dance performed by the devotees of Maa Durga during Navratri in her honour for liberating the world from the terror of demons and in celebration of the victory of Dharma over Adharma. It is a celebration of the feminine form of the divine. Garba is not a government scheme that every ‘minority’ citizen has a right to.
In fact, even to avail the benefits of government schemes, there are certain criteria to be met. If any non-Hindu, particularly Muslims whose faith clearly directs them not to associate partners with their God, Allah, or partake in the celebration of the festivals of polytheists like Hindus, want to join Garba celebrations, they should revert to Sanatan Dharma, invoke devotion for Maa Durga and maybe then they can be allowed to participate in Garba events.
Barring Muslims or anyone from entering Durga Puja pandals who does not have genuine devotion for Maa Durga is not discriminatory but simply the preservation of the sanctity of Garba.
If Muslims have really become so secular that they do not see a violation of their Sharia and concept of Tawheed, why don’t they organise Durga Puja in mosques?
For years, Hindus have been conditioned into believing that because they form India’s religious majority, and their polytheistic faith is inherently tolerant and accommodative, it is their unquestionable responsibility to bear the burden of upholding the mythical syncretic culture, ‘Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb’, inclusivity, idea of India and whatnot, while other communities are exempt from shouldering this burden.
In the left-liberal understanding of secularism and inclusivity, the Hindu majority must accommodate Islamist intransigence and secularise their festivals, while the Muslim ‘minority’ gets a free pass to be as exclusionary as their religion demands and still not get accused of intolerance.
In recent years, there have been consistent attempts at secularising, rather than de-Hinduising, Hindu festivals to make them absolutely inclusive and reduce them to not Dharmic celebrations but cultural events.
Onam, the Hindu festival rooted in the Hindu scriptural legend of the greatness of King Mahabali (also known as Raja Bali) and how Lord Vishnu, in his Vamana avatar, gave him a boon that he could come back to meet his subjects once a year, has been reduced to a mere harvest festival.
In Tamil Nadu, Hindu-hating Dravidianists have been executing a similar playbook to secularise Pongal or Makar Sankranti and dissociate it from its Hindu religious roots. Just as Onam is being labelled a ‘cultural’ festival in Kerala, Pongal is being promoted as a ‘Tamil’ festival of agrarian gratitude in Tamil Nadu.
This de-hyphenation of religion from Hindu festivals has also been noticed in movies and commercial ad films over the years, with Diwali becoming ‘festival of lights’, Holi becoming ‘festival of colors’ and Garba being reduced to a folk dance.
The same Islamo-leftists who argue that Hindu processions should not stop outside mosques, pass from ‘Muslim areas’ or play loud religious music there to preserve ‘communal harmony’, want Hindus to lay a red carpet for Muslims to enter Garba events even though their religion prohibits them from partaking in the festivities of non-Muslims, and perhaps molest Hindu women or unleash violence.
For Hindus, Garba is worship of Maa Durga; for Islamists, the sacred celebration is a perfect opportunity for rape jihad
Over the years, Islamists have attacked Hindus on their festivals by using trivial excuses to express their hatred and intolerance towards the Hindu community. Every year, OpIndia reports numerous incidents of Muslim mob violence on Holi, Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Ram Navami, Hanuman Jayanti, Navratri, and other Hindu festivals. While Garba events have also faced desecration and violence, this sacred celebration has been targeted for love and rape jihad by Islamists.
In September 2025, during Navratri, Muslim boys were caught filming female participants of a Garba celebration at a college in Mumbai’s Virar West. On checking one of the boys’ phones, the organisers reportedly found multiple videos of girls, alongside obscene chats and conversations that outlined plans to lure Hindu girls into relationships and “ruin” them.
Some of the leaked messages contained disturbing instructions, with one explicitly urging that not a single Hindu girl be “left untouched” after entering the Garba grounds. In the same college, obscene comments were also made by putting videos of students on the Discord App during the Dandiya program.
In a garba programme in Benisar Bari area in 2025, Muslim youths forcibly entered the pandal and molested the women. The Muslim men forcibly danced with women. When other participants resisted, stone pelting began. At least 5 people were injured, and police vehicles were damaged. Police later arrested 12 people in connection with the incident.
Last year, two Muslim youths, Suhail Siddiqui and Saif, were caught infiltrating during the Navaratri event in Kanpur. They made obscene comments about the Hindu girls. After a complaint from a female police officer present at the venue, both were arrested.
A Durg idol was damaged on 21st September 2025 in Mumbai’s Mankhurd area. The incident happened near a mosque where Muslims objected to the sound of drums being played during the welcome procession of the idol.
Last year, one Mohsin Khan threw eggs from the 16th floor of the building during a garba event at the JP North Gardgarn City Society on Mira Road East in Mumbai.
In October 2024, it was reported that in Madhya Pradesh’s Alirajpur, Muslim youths molested a woman returning from the Garba event.
In another incident during 2024 Navratri, a Muslim youth named Feroz attended a garba event using a fake Hindu identity in Ujjain. Feroz posed as Rahul and entered the Garba Pandal with condoms. Yes, you read it right: he was carrying condoms at the Hindu religious event and was caught by the activists of Hindu Jagran Manch.
In the Guna district, it was reported that five Muslim boys entered the Garba Pandal under suspicious circumstances, as told by the police and were detained in 2024.
In October 2023, it was reported that one Fareed Shah attempted to enter the Garba Pandal in Hyderabad’s Begumpet Hockey Stadium by posing as a Hindu person named Ashish to lure a Hindu girl. He was stopped by Bajrang Dal activists.
In October 2022, it was reported that 8 Muslim men were detained by the police in Indore for trying to enter garba venues by concealing their identities. In another incident from the same year, it was reported that a Muslim person was arrested for passing lewd remarks about Hindu women at a Garba Pandal in Palsikar colony.
On 1st October 2022, a Hindu youth named Madhusudan Modi was attacked with a knife by three Islamists named Shahrukh, Zubair, and Samir at a dandiya event held in Bikaner in Rajasthan. These Muslim youths were molesting girls who had come to play Garba.
On 1st October 2022, six Hindu students were attacked by four accused, identified as Rathod Amin Gulab Nabi, Nizami Moin Nurmahammad, Ganchi Amanbhai Firozbhai, and Chauhan Mahamadnuman Mahamadhanif, for objecting to Islamic songs being played during a Garba event at BK Patel Arts & Commerce College of Savli in Vadodara. The four accused attacked the Hindu students with iron belts and stones.
On September 30 2022, some Muslim youths forcefully entered the Garba venue in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The Muslim youths, however, fled as soon as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal activists arrived.
In the same year, seven Muslim youths were arrested by the police from the Garba pandal of Pandharinath in Indore. They were reportedly making videos of Hindu girls.
In 2023, OpIndia reported that in Gujarat’s Bharuch, Muslims of the Ikhar village had threatened the Hindu tribal community not to organise Navratri and said they would pelt stones if the event is held, declaring that it was a ‘Muslim area’.
While all Muslims may or may not have malice for Hindus and their festivals, Hindus cannot and should not get guilt-trapped and allow Islamist predators to enter Garba pandals, molest Hindu women and desecrate the sacred celebration, just because suicidally delusional Hindus have to satiate their fetish for unwarranted ‘inclusivity’, ‘secularism’, and ‘composite culture’.
