We live in a “sovereign socialist secular democratic republic” where all people and religions are treated equally. In India, every person has the freedom to speech, one can express their opinion and viewpoint freely yet we come across cases where one’s viewpoint on a particular religion’s practice leads to violence.
In Bengaluru, a right wing organisation resort to physical abuse against a minor Dalit Schoolboy after he shared an image of Lord Ram and Hanuman stating that they were not Gods. This incident took place on January 22, the day “Pran Pratishtha” of Ram Temple took place in Ayodhya. One of the suspects of the case recorded the entire incident and circulated it on social-media.
In the video, we can see a boy in an auto-rickshaw surrounded by several men wearing saffron scarves. As the boy gets off of the rickshaw, one of the men slapped him. He was then taken to a temple and made to pray before the deities of Hinduism. The 17- Year Old was pressurised and forced to chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’. Later, the men were seen going through the minor’s mobile phone and interrogating him when one of them slaps him.
A FIR has been filed and the accused have been arrested. The offenders have been identified as Abhishek, Ritesh Reddy, Abhishek Telang and Sunil Reddy. They have been charged with 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult) and 506 (criminal intimidation) under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities Act), 1989.
“Then, they took me to the Hanuman temple near Kullur bridge, assaulted me and forced me to chant Jai Sri Ram. They took me inside the temple and made me apologise,” said the complainant. Religion has always been a sensitive topic. One shall be extremely careful when talking about it but can one forcibly imply their opinion on someone else and make that person pray before deities he/she does not consider as God? Everyone has the right to speak their mind but resorting to violence, intimidation and forcing someone to behave against their beliefs is extremely disgraceful.
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