‘Stop stop… it is done’: Yogi refuses to wear skull cap at Kabir mausoleum

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday created a flutter after he refused to wear a skull cap at at poet-saint Kabir mausoleum in Maghar.

According to a report in Financial Express, when Khadim Hussain, caretaker of the mausoleum moved to place the karakul, a fur skull cap on the Adityanath’s head, he politely declined when he was in Kabir’s Math to oversaw the preparations for PM Modi’s Thursday visit.

“Stop stop… it is done,” the CM told Khadim. To this, the caretaker said, “Sir, hold this (the cap) in your hand,” which the Chief
Minister agreed to.

Adityanath’s refusal, however, refusal attracted outrage from Opposition politicians.

Congress leader Pramod Tiwari said: “A CM has to take everyone together. If someone is offering you a cap, pag, it is just a gesture to show respect. People occupying top offices have to take everyone together.”

“If he (Khadim) offered him a cap, by wearing a cap for just 1 minute, it will not change your religion neither hurt you religious sentiment.”

Meanwhile, Mohsin Raza, UP minister and the lone Muslim in the cabinet defended Aditaynath saying: “By offering him a cap and when he refuses to wear it, what message you are trying to send? I am Muslim but I never wear a cap. Does this mean I am not a Muslim? Has he (Yogi Adityanath) committed a crime by doing so? Who told you to make him wear a cap? Why don’t you go to a temple, stand with people there, congratulate them? Change your thought.”

Adityanath’s refusal is a reminder to the 2011 incident when PM Modi as the Gujarat CM refused to wear a skull cap offered to him by a cleric during a fast for social harmony in Ahmedabad.