The Assam Police has arrested four persons associated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal for allegedly vandalising Christmas decorations at a school in Nalbari district, the administration said on Thursday.
The persons were identified as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s district Secretary Bhaskar Deka, its district Vice President Manash Jyoti Patgiri, its Assistant Secretary Biju Dutta and the Bajrang Dal’s district Convenor Nayan Talukdar.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal are part of a group of Hindutva organisations led by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the parent organisation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
The persons allegedly carried out the vandalism at St Mary’s School in Panigaon village on Wednesday. A video by India Today NE showed them setting fire to Christmas decorations and shouting “Jai Shri Ram”.
A case was registered under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to criminal trespass, unlawful assembly, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy. The persons have also been booked for mischief by injury, inundation, fire or explosive substances.
In another incident in Nalbari, about 15 to 20 alleged members of the Hindutva organisations burnt Christmas decorations at a shop and forced the establishment to close, Asom Live had reported.
Kerala minister says Lok Bhavan employees denied Christmas holiday
Kerala Labour Minister V Sivankutty on Thursday criticised the decision of the Lok Bhavan, formerly the Raj Bhavan, to organise programmes on Christmas day, alleging that it effectively denied employees a holiday, Onmanorama reported.
The governor’s official residence observed the Good Governance Day on Thursday to mark the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The minister said that the clarification by the authorities that participation was optional was misleading. “As long as instructions come from senior officials, ‘optional’ remains only in name,” he was quoted as saying.
Sivankutty cited orders issued by the Uttar Pradesh government to say that the Lok Bhavan’s decision appeared to follow a broader pattern.
The Bharatiya Janata Party government in Uttar Pradesh had on Wednesday announced that schools in the state will not be closed on Christmas day, but will remain open to commemorate Vajpayee’s birth anniversary.
Attacks on Christians, disruptions to Christmas celebrations
This came amid several incidents of attacks on Christians or disruptions to Christmas celebrations being reported in the past week.
In Chhattisgarh’s Raipur, a Hindutva mob on Wednesday vandalised Christmas decorations at a shopping mall. The videos of the incident posted on social media showed the men, armed with sticks, barging into the mall and destroying decorations a day ahead of Christmas.
The incident occurred on the day a Hindutva group had called for a state-wide strike to protest the allegedly illegal religious conversions in Chhattisgarh.
In Uttar Pradesh, members of Hindutva groups on Wednesday sat outside a church in Bareilly’s Cantonment area, reciting the Hanuman Chalisa and the shouting slogan “Jai Shri Ram”, The Hindu reported.
In Kerala, a worker of the RSS was arrested after a Christmas carol group of children was attacked while visiting homes in Pudussery village in Palakkad district on Monday.
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.
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