The Uttar Pradesh police have done well by removing 54,000 and lowering the volume of over 60,000 loudspeakers in just the last one week. The important point is that it was not only the loudspeakers at mosques that were targeted; other religious places and non-religious establishments also had to remove to take care of decibels.
This, along with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray’s activism, has got a lot of attention of the media. It is sad that something as simple as checking noise pollution should have been politicized, something that the local administration and cops should have been doing as routine duty has acquired the dimensions of a campaign, if not a crusade.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had to direct state officials to curb the use of loudspeakers at, among other places, religious sites. He instructed them that they ensured public address systems at religious places only after prior permission. Ditto for religious processions.
Given his image and some of his statements and actions, it is a surprise Adityanath’s government has quite impartially handled the issue of loudspeakers at temples and mosques.
Using these devices for azaan, bhajans, aarti, etc., causes a lot of trouble. Worse, the folks running religious places are not just amenable listen to the people in the surroundings; often they are insolent. This is what a journalist and his wife learnt last week.
“A journalist and his wife were allegedly called ‘anti-national’ and ‘Pakistanis’ after they objected to loud music being played at a religious event in their housing society in Noida Extension on Sunday night, The Times of India reported ohttps://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/noida/anti-national-scribe-couple-object-to-loud-music-abused/articleshow/90808653.cms on April 13. “An FIR was lodged against the organiser of the event and 100 others following a complaint by Saurabh Sharma, a deputy news editor with a national television channel’s Hindi portal and a resident of Supertech Ecovillage 3 in Noida Extension.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s excessive and sanctimonious religiosity is creating such problems. Many people have started believing that they could get away by chanting right kind of slogans and making nationalistic remarks. Perhaps, Adityanath’s action against loudspeakers would help rein in such people.