The Lulu Mall in Lucknow, inaugurated on July 10, has run into controversy after videos of people offering namaz in an open space in the shopping arena appeared all over social media.
The Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Mahasabha issued a warning on Thursday saying that if namaz would be offered in open spaces, it would protest by holding demonstrations and reciting the Sundar Kand.
The body has also asked all Hindus to boycott the mall.
The statement issued by the Hindu Mahasabha noted that 70 per cent of the employees of the mall belonged to one religion. It also alleged that ‘black money’ had been invested in it.
‘The government has directed that namaz cannot be offered in public spaces…if this happens again we shall protest’ read the statement.
On Tuesday, social media users expressed their anger over the namazis asking why they were being allowed to pray in the open and not in a designated prayer area.
Along with the anger, some also alleged that all the male staff in the mall was Muslim, while female staff were Hindus. There was also criticism of the alleged fact that the staff cannot speak Hindi.
Others predicted that the mall will be a ‘major flop’ and accused it of promoting ‘love jihad’.
Though the management of the mall did not respond to queries, a job opening on the mall’s website did not specify that the applicants belong to any specific religion.
Some users also sprang to defend the act at the mall. One said, ‘Lulu Mall is built by a Muslim, if few Hindus have an objection to namaz, please don’t go to the mall’. Another user wrote, ‘Praying is a crime in new India?’
The mall in Lucknow has come at an investment of Rs 2,000 crore. Its inauguration was a high-profile affair with the chief minister, Yogi Adityanath doing the honours. The opening was also attended by the speaker of the UP Assembly Satish Mahana and deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak among others.
Adityanath had expressed his ‘utmost happiness’ at the way the project had taken shape. He had also recorded his appreciation for the fact that the group owner Yusufalli MA had announced investments in Prayagraj, Varanasi, Gorakhpur and Kanpur.
On Wednesday, one lakh people visited the mall which boasts 300 retail shops spread over 2.2 million square feet with an 11-storey parking space. The mall is expected to generate 5,000 direct and 10,000 indirect jobs. Incidentally, land for the project was not provided by the incumbent state government but by the government of Akhilesh Yadav, who was missing from the inauguration.
