Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Saturday visited Bharatiya Janata Party MP Tarun Vijay in hospital, where he was admitted after being attacked by a mob on Friday. Vijay and Dalit leaders were roughed up and hit with stones in the state’s Chakrata town a mob of upper caste villagers for reportedly visiting Punah village’s Silgur Devta temple, which prohibits the entry of backward caste people. The MP was taken to a nearby military hospital, while the mob vandalised his car.
Rawat assured strict action into the matter after and urged all religious leaders in the state “to open the doors of their temples to people from all faith and also to the Dalits”, dna reported. “Yes, customs should be respected, but you can’t stop someone from worshipping,” he said.
The Rajya Sabha member, a local Dalit activist Daulat Kunwar and other members of the community were attacked when they were leaving the temple, located around 180 kilometres from state capital Dehradun. “The [upper caste] villagers of a nearby area had organised a bhandara [feast in honour of local god]. The irritated villagers pelted stones when they saw the Dalit crowd coming out of temple and injured all of them,” a police official said.
The entry into Silgur Devta temple was the launch of a campaign by Dalits in Uttarakhand against a centuries-old tradition, which prohibits them from entering 349 temples in the state’s Jaunsar-Bhabar region. The BJP MP is supporting the campaign of the Dalit leaders, who said they will forcibly enter the temples, particularly the five popular shrines in the Chakrata region. Numerous Dalit villagers fear a backlash to the temple entry initiative from upper caste folk, Hindustan Times reported.
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