Manohar Lal Khattar, Haryana chief minister and self-appointed arbiter of social mores from how women should dress to prescribed religious practices, has spoken. Namaz should be read not on open public spaces but in mosques or idgahs, he said, after sundry goons chased migrant Muslims off some of the dusty open air spaces in Gurgaon where they had congregated for Friday prayers. If there were not enough mosques, he added, they should pray at home, he prescribed.
What was the problem with these congregations? Nothing much, really. But clearly, some people see something disturbing in the sight of undernourished young men
