“Arrest him and take him away”.

The orders from Anjani Kumar, the Commissioner of Hyderabad were sharp and very clear. No sooner had Raja Singh, the BJP MLA from Goshamahal constituency had landed up in the troubled zone of Amberpet than the top cop ordered his men to arrest him. Raja Singh protested, giving vent to his anger at the treatment being meted out to him and public humiliation in the glare of cameras. But in no time, he was taken into preventive custody, bundled into a waiting police van and taken away.

Amberpet saw tension after a mosque that was in a state of disuse was demolished by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) for road widening. Telangana Home minister Mahmood Ali offered to allot government or municipal land but certain members of the Muslim community wanted the mosque to be constructed at the same spot. 

Tension arose when construction activity of the mosque began on Sunday. It soon led to stone-pelting in which two cops and a few Muslim youth were injured. The police had to resort to lathicharge to control the situation. (Read the Twitter thread on the issue)

It was when calm had been restored in Amberpet when Raja Singh, known to make controversial and provocative anti-Muslim remarks landed up at the spot. Having had a tough time to restore peace, Anjani Kumar had clearly no intention to have anyone, be it a lawmaker or anyone else, do anything to disturb the situation. More so, with the holy month of Ramzan due to commence this week. 

The BJP has condemned the treatment meted out to Raja Singh. Party spokesperson K Madhavi accused the police department of working only for a few and condemned the “behaviour of the officers”. 

“They dare not arrest the ones who tried to build a masjid without any permission but brutally arrest MLA Raja Singh ji,” Madhavi wrote in a Facebook post. 

BJP leaders criticised the government’s double standards that allowed MIM legislator Syed Ahmed Pasha Quadri to inspect the place where the mosque was demolished and offer prayers on Friday.

Raja Singh calls himself a `Tiger’ in his Twitter handle but on Sunday evening, it was the Hyderabad commissioner who showed he was the real `Singham’. The job of the police now would be to identify the troublemakers and take action against them so that the Hyderabad police does not face the charge of being lenient towards the minority community.

From a citizen point of view, it is time cities and their administration take a decision on what is more important – a place of worship which is not even being put to use or a more wide road for traffic to ply. I do not think the Gods of any religion would mind making way so that the devout can lead a more comfortable life. 

However, there is also confusion over who actually owned the land where the mosque was built, with conflicting versions being presented. According to media reports, GHMC officials said the land was a private property and not a religious structure and had existed since 1984. GHMC had acquired the land by paying a sum of Rs 2.32 crore to the affected property owner. But the Telangana Wakf Board claimed the land was its and it should have received the compensation. Leaders of the MBT, another political party in Hyderabad, claimed the mosque was 200 years old.