Mumbai: The Shiv Sena party on Wednesday demanded a burqa ban in public places and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to follow Sri Lanka’s suit, which banned face veils after deadly bomb blasts ripped through the country on Easter Sunday. Calling for the burqa ban, Shiv Sena said in the editorial that when it could be outlawed in “Ravan’s Lanka, when will it happen in Ram’s Ayodhya?” 

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For the security measure, Sri Lanka banned all kinds of burqa, niqab or any kind of face-covering veil across the island nation, after eight bombs targeted three churches and three high-end hotels in the country on April 21, leading to the deaths of at least 250 people and more than 500 people injured. Shiv Sena said that its ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should follow Sri Lanka’s example in the matter and execute a burqa ban. 

Shiv Sena, which is in alliance government with the Bharatiya Janata Party in Maharashtra, claimed in the editorial that the need of the hour was to not only ban triple talaq in the country but also the burqa. The editorial argued that those hiding their faces in public could “become a threat to national security” and hence the government needs to ban the burqa from public spaces. 

In the response on the statement, Union Minister and Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Ramdas Athawale opposed Shiv Sena’s demand for a burqa ban, stating that the traditions of any community cannot be banned. While Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut defended the party’s demand and clarified that they were not targeting any particular community. “It is not a religious issue, it is an issue of national security. If our Muslim brothers think that a burqa ban is against Islam, then I disagree,” Raut told Times Now.

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