Former BJP MP Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria has triggered controversy in Tonk, Rajasthan, after allegations surfaced that Muslim women were denied blankets during his distribution drive in Kareda Buzurg village.
According to a report by Indian Express, the incident has drawn sharp reactions from villagers, with several residents of Kareda Buzurg condemning what they described as discriminatory behaviour.
“Kambal nahin bhi milta toh koi dikkat kon thi humein. Bas baat ye thi beizzati ki (It’s not like I was suffering without a blanket. This is about how I was insulted),” Shakuran Bano, in her mid-60s told IE.
Shakuran isn’t alone in her outrage. Her Hindu neighbours in Kareda Buzurg are also angered by what they describe as a “public humiliation”.
Jaunapuria was distributing blankets ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit to Ajmer on February 28.
Hanuman Chaudhary, husband of the Kareda Buzurg sarpanch claimed there is “bhaari aakrosh (immense anger)” in the village over the alleged actions of Jaunapuria.
“More than Muslims, it is Hindus who are angry,” he told IE. “We burnt Jaunapuria’s effigy the next day.”
Chaudhary termed the alleged actions of Jaunapuria “condemnable”, saying the village has long maintained communal harmony despite Muslims constituting only about 3% of the gram panchayat’s population.
“Be it Diwali, Holi, or Eid… we celebrate together. We don’t differentiate,” he told IE.
He alleged that Jaunapuria’s actions have “tried to vitiate the brotherhood here”.
According to him, members of other small community groups in the village are also apprehensive. “Their concern is that today it has happened with Muslims, tomorrow it can happen with them,” he said.
What does Shakuran say?
In the video, Shakuran was seen walking away as Jaunapuria appeared to dismiss her during the blanket distribution event in Kareda Buzurg village.
Shakuran told IE that she left immediately after the blankets were allegedly taken back. “The moment they took away the blankets, I got up then and there,” she said, adding that organisers asked them to “sit aside, sit separately”.
According to her, Jaunapuria remarked that “those who abuse Modi have no right (to the blankets),” an apparent reference to Narendra Modi. “Bura to bahut laga. Koi zaroori tha ki kambal hi dilwana hai (It was very hurtful. Nobody was asking for the blankets),” she said, describing the incident as “deeply upsetting”.
According to Shakuran, she and the others had attended the gathering on the invitation of a local woman from the village. Along with her, four other Muslim women were present at the event.
“We were fasting because of Ramzan, so we went,” she told IE, explaining that they had not known in advance that blankets would be distributed. “We didn’t know that blankets were to be distributed; those came after we had reached there.”
Shakuran, who lost her husband Nizam around six years ago, now lives with her younger son Haneef and his family in Kareda Buzurg village. The family — Haneef, his wife, their two sons and a daughter, along with Shakuran — share a modest two-room house for which they pay Rs 1,000 per month.
Her elder son, Islam, around 50, lives separately in nearby Chaksu town. Haneef, about 47, supports the household, which Shakuran says manages with limited means.
Haneef, a blacksmith like his late father, told IE that the episode left a deep emotional scar on the family. “Izzat toh kharab ho gayi (It’s a blot on our honour). He shouldn’t have humiliated us.”
According to the video of the event, when Jaunapuria was leaving, a couple of people were heard calling him out. However, Jaunapuria defended his move saying he was distributing blankets in his personal capacity, retorts, “Are the blankets from the government?”
However, Shakuran told IE that the strongest support came from within the village itself. “The Hindus in our village, young men, aetraaz utha liye (objected), telling him that we live here as brothers and sisters,” she said.
The Congress’s Tonk district president, Saud Saidi, demanded that the BJP expel Jaunapuria.
Jaunapuria reacts
Jaunapuria told IE that the blanket distribution was his personal initiative and part of routine outreach activities he conducts in Tonk.
“I keep doing such programmes. We had made a list of about 200 women party workers, and had not invited them (the Muslim women),” the BJP leader said, suggesting that the women arrived after hearing about the distribution.
He added that the women had their heads covered and he initially assumed they were party workers.
However, he claimed he later developed a “weham (suspicion)” and asked their names. After a local party functionary informed him that they were Muslim, Jaunapuria said he responded: “Ye toh galat bula li hain, aise toh uchit nahin hai (The wrong people have been called, it is not appropriate).”
Arguing that the issue was not communal, the former MP said that had the women taken the blankets, they might later have claimed they had “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,” he said.
Denying discrimination, Jaunapuria pointed to his long-running “sansad rasoi (community kitchen)” in Tonk, which he said has been operational for 10–12 years for patients at the local women and children’s hospital and their families. “About half of those who eat are Muslim women,” he claimed.
He also said he distributes Rs 500 to individuals on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday. “Ek hospital bed par koi Hindu hai, ek bed par Musalman hai… Toh main kahan tak chhantoon? Mere ko sabko hi dena parh raha hai (There may be a Hindu on one hospital bed and a Muslim on the other… How much can I segregate? I have no choice but to give it to everyone),” he said, maintaining that his actions were not motivated by communal considerations.
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