In Ghazipur village near Delhi, a Sadhvi named Shakuntala Gupta (67) has put up her temple for sale. The Sadhvi has been living alone in this Hazira Basti area for about 25 years and used to run a dairy. As there was no temple in her area, at some point of time after getting urged by local people she established one in her house. That’s when her real troubles began.
She says that, since the 1980s, the population of a “particular community” has been rising in her area. And things have changed so much now that instead of Hazira Basti this place is now informally known as Mullah colony.
She is quoted as saying that after she constructed her temple, people from that “particular community” started to pressurize her close it down. After she didn’t relent people started throwing pieces of meat near her temple and also converted a part of a nearby empty plot into a dump yard.
Complains to police didn’t yield much and a local Hindu organisation assisted her in installing three CCTV cameras near the temple which too reportedly were broken by people.
Now things have reached such a state that the Sadhvi is getting threats from people of that “particular community” and she claims that even acid has been thrown at her. After not being able take it anymore, she has now decided to sell the temple and leave the area. The head of Akhand Bharat Morcha Mr Sandeep Ahuja has demanded that the Sadhvi be provided police protection, it remains to be seen if she is provided the same.
Now to further clear up matters, a video featuring the Sadhvi has emerged wherein she explains all the atrocities committed on her in detail:
In short, in the video Sadhvi stated that she has been having problems since 2010. She claimed that the people from the “particular community” didn’t allow her to leave the locality for a few days from 5th March so much so that she and her cow had to stay hungry as a result. On 7th March a crowd gathered with the intention of assaulting anyone who came to pray at the temple. Later the crowd was dispersed by the local police giving her a bit of respite.
She described how on the 9th she reached out to the police station and to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh for helping her out. She has also alleged that the people even want to assassinate her. She lamented the fact that she is fighting a lonely battle and no Hindu from the area was standing up for her. She even got a bit emotional when recalling her decision to leave the area and how she asked her detractors itself where should she move away to.
Another labourer from the area also speaks in the video above, confirming that the lady had been troubled by some people recently. He also reiterates that the trouble makers have begun throwing meat pieces around the temple area.
Even though the problem faced by the Sadhvi is of a very serious nature, newspaper Asian Age decided to completely sanitize their report by removing all communal references and just referred to the people of that “particular community” who are threatening Sadhvi as goons and anti-social elements. There was also no mention of any meat being thrown etc. in the newspaper report.
