Hindu organisations have publicly warned a BJP minister not to set foot in Chhatarpur because he took part in an Iftari feast disregarding their diktat not to do so. Akhand Pratap Singh, minister for welfare of minorities, had attended the feast organised near the main bus stand, inviting the wrath of organisations like Bajrang Dal, VHP, Dharm Raksha Sena and Ram Seva Samiti amongst a dozen other odd Hindu organisations. These organisations said that land was disputed and his presence would embolden the minority community to further stake its claim.

“We will blacken his face, throw mud, tear his clothes or do what ever is possible to avenge the insult,” member of Dharm Jagaran Samiti Madhur Mishra told The Indian Express on Wednesday, minutes after the Hindu organisations held a massive protest in the town, parading donkeys and offering them food. They began by burning Singh’s effigy on September 11, the evening the feast was organised, and followed that with an unsuccessful ‘bandh’. Now the organisations have decided to intensify their agitation because he “compounded his offence by speaking against RSS and some BJP leaders.”

When the organisations came to know that Singh had come to Chhatapur to attend the Iftari, they met him at the circuit house and asked him to avoid going there. He attended the function with additional police protection and left in a ziffy. “I can’t avoid such programmes because I am invited as the minorities’ welfare minister,” the minister said. He alleged that he was being targeted because he had launched a drive against black marketers in the state. Singh, who represents Tikamgarh constituency in the neighbouring district, also holds the civil supplies portfolio. “It’s my moral duty to take care of all sections of the society. I was only trying to improve communal harmony,” he said.