Picture used for representational purpose only

MUMBAI: A month after the Shiv Sena kicked up a controversy by demanding a ban on burqa in public places in India, a few BJP netas in the city distributed burqas along with an "Eid packet" containing materials to prepare delicacies to over 1,000 women at a function on Sunday. BJP and Sena are alliance partners in the state and Centre.

"We interacted with a cross-section of women and concluded that for many Muslim women burqa serves to hide their desperate situation. Many working women wear burqa over their old, torn clothes when they step out of their homes...we thought to gift it to them ahead of Eid," said Hyder Azam, BJP city vice-president and chairman of Maulana Azad Minorities Financial Development Corporation.

"Burqa should not be seen as threat to security or sign of backwardness. They empower women." BJP city president Ashish Shelar too attended the function.

