A Hindutva mob on Wednesday vandalised Christmas decorations at a shopping mall in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, The Indian Express reported.
The videos of the incident posted on social media show the mob, armed with sticks, barging into the mall and destroying decorations a day ahead of Christmas.
The incident occurred on the day a Hindutva group called for a state-wide strike to protest the allegedly illegal religious conversions in Chhattisgarh, NDTV Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh reported.
An unidentified employee of the mall told The Indian Express that about 80 to 90 persons barged in, “threatened us…shouted at us” and “indulged in violence”.
“For the last 16 years, since we began operations here, we have always supported bandh calls,” the employee was quoted as having said. “But I have never seen such behaviour.”
The call for the bandh followed communal clashes over the Christian burial of a person in Kanker district of Chhattisgarh.
The tensions began on December 16 in Bade Teoda village after the sarpanch Rajman Salam buried his 70-year-old father a day after his death. In a video released the same day, Salam said that he had converted to Christianity, while his father had not.
Salam claimed that he sought permission from village elders to bury his father according to tribal customs, but was told that the burial could not take place in his presence because he is a Christian.
He then went ahead with a Christian burial on his private land, after which the clashes were reported, The Wire reported.
Clashes broke out on December 16 and December 17, after which the police cordoned off the area. On December 18, tensions escalated when a mob armed with sticks breached the police barricades and entered Bade Teoda village, triggering fresh violence.
Several incidents of attacks on Christians or disruptions to Christmas celebrations have been reported in the past week.
In Uttar Pradesh, members of Hindutva groups on Wednesday sat outside a church in Bareilly’s Cantonment area, reciting the Hanuman Chalisa and shouting slogans of “Jai Shri Ram”, The Hindu reported.
In Assam, members of the Bajrang Dal on Wednesday barged into a school in Nalbari district, destroying Christmas decorations and smashing posters on the premises, the police said.
The alleged members of the Hindutva group carried out the vandalism at St Mary’s School in Nalbari’s Panigaon village. A video by India Today NE showed them setting fire to Christmas decorations and shouting “Jai Shri Ram”.
In Kerala, a worker of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was arrested after a Christmas carol group of children was attacked while visiting homes in Pudussery village in Palakkad district on Monday.
The RSS is the parent organisation of the ruling BJP at the Centre.
Last week, some schools in Kerala run by Hindutva organisations and a privately-managed Hindu institution had allegedly halted Christmas celebrations. The managements of the schools, however, denied the allegations.
In Uttarakhand’s Haridwar, a hotel run by the state tourism department cancelled a Christmas celebration on the banks of the river Ganga after protests called by the Ganga Sabha, which administers the Har-ki-Pauri ghat.
On Monday, Aam Aadmi Party leader Saurabh Bharadwaj shared a video purportedly recorded in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar showing men threatening women and children wearing Santa Claus caps.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India on Tuesday raised concern about the “alarming rise in attacks” on Christians in several states ahead of Christmas and said that the incidents undermine India’s constitutional guarantees of religious freedom and the right to worship without fear.
No Christmas holiday for UP schools
The Bharatiya Janata Party government in Uttar Pradesh announced that schools in the state will not be closed for Christmas on Thursday, but will remain open to commemorate the birth centenary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
An order issued by the state Basic Education Department stated that attendance for students would be mandatory. It also directed schools to organise speeches, cultural programmes and remembrance activities to honour Vajpayee.
The order applies to government primary and upper primary schools and coincides with the conclusion of the official birth centenary year celebrations of the BJP leader.
In Rajasthan’s Sriganganagar district, the education department on December 22 issued an order stating that private schools should not force students to dress as Santa Claus during Christmas celebrations.
Additional District Education Officer Ashok Wadhwa said in the order that action would be taken if any complaint was received, PTI reported. “Action will be taken under the rules if any school is found forcing students,” the news agency quoted Wadhwa as saying.
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