Badruddin Ajmal, the chief of All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), courted a major controversy yesterday after he was seen throwing a Gamosa, the cultural symbol of Assam, at an election rally. AIUDF is contesting the assembly elections in Assam in alliance with the Congress party. The behaviour of Ajmal has attracted widespread criticism in the state, terming it as an insult of Assamese culture. Today Prime Minister Narendra Modi also slammed Ajmal for the same, saying people are hurt and angry with the incident.
In a public display of anger, Maulana Badruddin Ajmal was seen getting angry on a party worker for at an election in Nagarbera in Assam, and he threw a Gamosa at the worker in a visible rage of anger. The Gamosa was offered to him to greet him. Afterwards, he was seen slamming his aides angrily.
According to reports, Ajmal was angry with his party workers for causing ‘unnecessary delays’ by greeting the leaders present at the rally. He was worried that if the rally is delayed, his helicopter may not be able to take off as the weather was cloudy.
Gamosa is both a utilitarian piece of cloth and also a symbol of Assamese culture, which is used to greet visiting dignitaries at public events. The sanctum sanctorum at Namghars is also decorated with Gamosa. Made popular at national level in recent years by PM Narendra Modi, traditional Assamese Gamosa is woven on handloom using mostly cotton yarn, although silk is also used to prepare Gamosa for special occasions.
Ajmal’s act of throwing the Gamosa was considered as an insult of Assamese culture, and BJP was quick to use during the ongoing elections. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal tweeted that this was Congress and AIUDF’s design to humiliate and disrespect Assam’s culture and heritage.
Union minister Kiren Rijiju tweeted that Ajmal has openly insulted Gamosa, the pride of Assam.
Even PM Modi mentioned the same in his election rally in Kokrajhar in Assam today. He said that Gamosa is the symbol of hard work of women of Assam, which was insulted publicly by Ajmal in anger. “Everyone who loves Assam is hurt and angry after seeing those pictures”, the PM said.
This was not the only occasion when Badruddin Ajmal was seen angry. Earlier, he was seen throwing away the boom mike of reporter waiting to get his comments on the elections.
Industrialist-Politician Badruddin Ajmal is also a Maulana, and he was seen performing his duties as Maulana during elections rallies. While he was angry for some reason, perhaps anticipating a defeat in the elections, he was seen ‘blessing’ the crowd by blowing into the vessels carried by the crowd.
He is known to perform Jhar-Fook, a kind of Islamc sorcery, and some people carry vessels to collect the blessings of his ‘fook’, where he blows into the vessels.