Jaipur: On Sunday (February 22) Shakuran Bano was among many women who went to attend a meeting by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Member of Parliament Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria at their village Kareda Buzurg in Tonk district of Rajasthan.Bano says that soon, Jaunapuria started distributing blankets to the women present there. But she was not ready for what happened next.“He asked my name. When I told him my name, he refused to give me the blanket and said that those of you who abuse Modi, you won’t get the blankets. There were three-four other Muslim women too at the meeting. Some of the Muslim women who got the blankets were asked to return them. We felt very hurt as we have never been insulted like this,” Bano, who says she’s in her early sixties, told The Wire on Monday (February 23).In a video of the incident which went viral on social media, Jaunapuria is seen asking the Muslim women to sit separately while saying that it doesn’t matter to him if anyone feels bad and that those who abuse Modi have no right to take the blankets.Ex BJP MP Sukhbir Singh was distributing blankets but when he saw Muslim women,he asked them to leave & even took back blanketsWhen confronted by Public,he showed no regretTHIS IS WHAT APARTHEID & DISCRIMINATION LOOKS LIKE& then they wonder why Muslims don’t vote for BJP pic.twitter.com/lDxJThafMm— Nehr_who? (@Nher_who) February 23, 2026The video shows some locals confronting Jaunapuria as he leaves the meeting, asking him why he took back the blankets from the Muslim women and telling him that everyone has equal rights. To which Jaunapuria replies that the blankets are not being distributed as part of any government scheme.“I have been living in this village for many years. I came here after my marriage and now live with my children and grandchildren. I have never faced such an instance. We don’t even think about who is Muslim, who is Hindu. We all went to the meeting, Hindu women and Muslim women, but didn’t expect that we would be insulted,” said Bano.Shakuran Bano. Photo: By arrangementThe incident sparked protests against Jaunapuria, who is a two-time former BJP MP from Tonk-Sawai Madhopur, with many locals coming in support of the women who were denied the blankets.“Both Hindus and Muslims live peacefully in our village. When the former MP announced that he would distribute blankets, both Hindu women and a few Muslim women had assembled. We were standing at the spot as he was distributing the blankets. But after knowing that some of the women present were Muslims, he took back the blankets,” Ramesh Meena, a villager, told The Wire.“When us youngsters confronted Jaunapuria, he said that he won’t give blankets to those who abuse Modi. Thereafter he left. Both the Hindu and Muslim communities in our village co-exist peacefully, participate in each other’s festivals and such an incident has not happened before. After the incident we all went to meet the Muslim women who were not given the blankets and told them that we stand in their support,” Meena added.As the video of the incident went viral on social media, the opposition Congress slammed the BJP leader and condemned the incident.“Today, former BJP MP Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria reached village Kareda Buzurg in Niwai tehsil of Tonk district, where he insulted a Muslim woman while distributing blankets. He first distributed the blankets and then took them back,” Rajasthan leader of opposition Tikaram Jully posted on X on Sunday.“When the villagers protested against this style of working of the MP, he even threatened them. The villagers strongly objected to this discrimination. It is absolutely condemnable for a public representative who has held a position like MP to act like this,” said Jully in the post written in Hindi.The villagers along with members of the Youth Congress also torched the effigy of Jaunapuria over the incident.In a video posted on the official X account of Jaunapuria on Sunday, the former MP is seen distributing blankets to men and women in Datwas, another village in Tonk district.When contacted, former BJP MP Jaunapuria told The Wire, “We didn’t invite them. If we have to distribute 200 blankets, we have already prepared the list, and in it if some 30-40 men, women come, how can we give them? If we give them 30-40 (blankets), our people will be troubled.”Jaunapuria’s response was similar to what he is seen saying in the video that went viral on social media.“Everyone knows the straightforward thing that you abuse BJP, Modi, us and then we should give our blankets too? You are already getting benefits of government schemes, this is our private initiative, we are distributing with private money. They should not have come itself. When you have not been called, why did you come? The Congress can level whatever allegations it wants. Congress is alleging because they are voters of Congress,” Jaunapuria told The Wire.Jaunapuria was the BJP MP from Tonk-Sawai Madhopur for a decade after his consecutive victories from the constituency in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He lost the seat to Congress’s Harish Meena in the 2024 parliamentary elections.“The treatment meted out to Muslim women observing Roza by former MP Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria at a temple in village Kareda Buzurg of Niwai Assembly constituency of Tonk district today is not only condemnable but also the result of a disruptive mindset that is destroying the social fabric of this country. Giving blankets to poor and helpless women and then asking their names and taking them back based on their religion – this is an extremely shameful and inhuman act,” incumbent MP Harish Meena posted on X on Sunday.आज टोंक जिले की निवाई विधानसभा के ग्राम करेडा बुजुर्ग में भगवान के मंदिर पर पूर्व सांसद सुखबीर सिंह जौनापुरिया द्वारा मुस्लिम रोजेदार महिलाओं से किया गया व्यवहार न केवल निंदनीय है बल्कि इस देश के सामाजिक ताने बाने को नष्ट करने वाली विघटनकारी सोच का परिणाम है।गरीब और असहाय… pic.twitter.com/Nhxrp12Wnf— Harish Chandra Meena (@HC_meenaMP) February 22, 2026Bano, who was later given a blanket by locals, along with other women, says that she hopes such incidents don’t happen again in future.“Today this happened to us, tomorrow the somebody else could face the same thing. I hope such an incident where people are discriminated because of their religion, is not repeated again,” said Bano.This story was updated at 7:27 PM on February 23, 2026 to include the response of Jaunapuria.