BJP leader distributes blankets in Rajasthan, then takes them back from Muslim women, later says: ‘Thought they were party workers’

A woman from whom the blanket was taken away, Shakuran Bano, later told reporters, “He was asking the name of Muslims and took back the blankets.”

She said that there were six Muslim women, of which three received the blankets but had them taken away from them. “They told us to sit separately without giving a reason,” she said.

Ramesh Meena, a local resident, said, “We have 5-7 Muslim houses in the village, but such a thing has never happened. It is a quiet village. We all live peacefully here.”

BJP और RSS की मानवीय दृष्टिकोण और संवेदनाओं की व्याख्या में करुणा की बजाय नफरत झलकती है। एक गरीब, ज़रूरतमंद महिला को कंबल देने से वंचित करना और उसका अपमान करना बेहद निंदनीय और दुर्भाग्यपूर्ण है। धर्म और जाति के आधार पर भेदभाव करना न केवल नैतिक रूप से गलत है, बल्कि संवैधानिक… pic.twitter.com/UyerEGK3gz

— Sachin Pilot (@SachinPilot) February 23, 2026

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Later, members of the Youth Congress approached the women and gave them blankets, terming Jaunapuria’s actions humiliating.

Jaunapuria told The Indian Express that the blanket distribution was his own initiative and not a “party programme”.

“It was not a party programme, but my own. I keep doing such programmes. We had made a list of about 200 women party workers and hadn’t invited them (the Muslim women). But the moment they got to know (about distribution) . . . they were sitting with chunnis, and I believed that they must be (party) workers,” he said.

He said that he had a suspicion, which prompted him to ask the women their names. After one of them told him her name, and after the party’s local leader told him that they’re Muslim, “I told him ye toh galat bula li hain, aese toh uchit nahi hai (Calling them is a mistake, it is not appropriate).”

He claimed that had the women left with the blankets, they would have later said that “they made a fool of Jaunapuria. . . You are already getting government schemes, and now you want this too, while our workers are left out. If we give 30-40 blankets to you, then our workers will get angry.”

The former Lok Sabha MP said that he has been running a “sansad rasoi” kitchen in Tonk for “10-12 years” and claimed that “about 50% of the women taking the food at the local women and child hospital are Muslim”.

“I also gave away Rs 500 each on PM Modi’s birthday to everyone — there is a Hindu on one bed, and a Muslim on the other [in the hospital]. How much will I segregate? I have to give it to everyone,” he said. He further claimed that he has given blankets to Muslims in the past and that Muslim women also tie rakhi on him.

‘Politics of hate’: Congress

Meanwhile, several Congress party leaders, among others, have condemned the incident.

Congress state president Govind Singh Dotasra said, “When the politics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ideology of the RSS are based on hate, polarisation and division, it is not surprising that BJP leaders at the ground level are displaying such vile behaviour.”

“A poor person has no caste or community, but the politics of hate always needs an enemy. That is why the BJP has repeatedly conspired to spoil the harmony in Rajasthan and divide people among themselves. But the mutual love and tradition of Rajasthan will never accept this divisive mindset,” he said.

Former Deputy CM Sachin Pilot said, “Depriving a poor, needy woman of a blanket and insulting her is extremely reprehensible and unfortunate. Discrimination based on religion and caste is not only morally wrong but also a violation of constitutional rights.”

Jaunapuria was an MLA from Haryana’s Sohna Assembly between 2005 and 2009 and was elected to Lok Sabha in 2014 from Tonk–Sawai Madhopur. He retained this seat in 2019, but lost in 2024 to Harish Meena of Congress.

He had grabbed headlines in 2020, too, when he recorded a video of himself taking a mud bath, saying that it would prevent Covid-19, but subsequently tested positive for the virus.