A recent video uploaded on 23 March 2026 has spread to social media after BJP leader Kompella was seen chanting Durga Suktam in a multi-faith prayer hall in the Delhi Airport’s multi-faith prayer room in which women wearing hijabs had prayed just moments earlier. He is seen chanting it very soon after girls who prayed there also perform fast in an Indian traditional ad-hoc group. He has faced strong reaction from both supporters of the gesture and critics for what they see as political theatre. If he is, there is no news media.
Prayer rooms at Indian airports are meant as a neutral space in which people of all religions can pray or meditate; for Kompella who was present in one room and filmed into it his message has been made of how to respect these places and keep them pure.
The leader’s supporters encouraged Hindus to use the multi-faith rooms more openly, they said. Some even vowed to recite the Hanuman Chalisa on their next flight and saw it as a means to normalize and even celebrate different religious movements around the same building in common space.
However, though religious freedomists hailed the action as affirmation, critics said the timing and publicity of the video were aimed at Muslim women who had prayed there just minutes earlier. It was what they called performative propaganda, not necessarily worship and not a kind of religious message (the religious conviction) but something of a message of political direction, they said.
The incident mirrors persistent debate on public prayer in India - particularly in sensitive spaces like airports. They’ve reiterated all the time that these are neutral zones from which everyone should walk, just as if that were the only place.
India's airports have begun to adopt multi-faith prayer rooms to serve for various groups with people and different religious travelers. They are intended to reduce tension and to help passengers who arrive in different religions during low traffic and to promote comfort for each one. And moments like this are reminders of inclusivity but political and cultural sensitivities not to fail with it, and that of not all the people, in their work in India (that we are dealing from both religious and civil rights aspects at a point of inclusivity or a country that people know is at the root of what the culture and society are about in India, it has to balance.
The video also arrives at the moment that conversations around religious expression in public spaces are increasing, as supporters of the video, in addition to criticism, also use social media to promote their views.
The chanting of Durga Suktam, by one BJP politician in Delhi Airport’s prayer room, is not only a thank-wrist thing to perform, but in addition it is bringing the world of faith and inclusivity and politics into our public places. Whether it is so much respect and propaganda, it shows us for real the delicate balance airports need to work within to make the prayer rooms for all travelers as neutral as possible.
