Shah Rukh offers ‘dua’ at Lata Mangeshkar’s funeral, BJP leader asks if he was ‘spitting’

As the nation bid farewell to legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar on Sunday, a photograph of actor Shah Rukh Khan offering his ‘dua’ at the cremation ground has gone viral.

The visual showed Shah Rukh raising his hands to say a dua, along with his manager Pooja Dadlani who also paid her last respects to the singer. The gesture was praised by many on social media who hailed the visual as a reflection of ‘secular India’.

However, the visual also triggered a controversy after Arun Yadav, state in-charge of Haryana BJP's IT cell, shared a short clip that showed Shah removing his mask and blowing air. "Did he spit?" Yadav asked in a Twitter post which triggered social media attacks against the actor.

Yadav, too, was criticised by many on social media for turning a warm gesture into a controversy. Congress leader Supriya Shrinate tweeted: “You aren’t just a bigot but pure evil to twist a dua said in reverence of the departed soul to spread hatred.”

The CPI(M) accused the BJP of trying to communalise the event, adding that Yadav was speaking not out of “peak stupidity” but “peak evil”.

Several social media users responded to Yadav and clarified what Shah Rukh’s action of blowing air, which is an Islamic ritual, denoted.