Days after Punjab was rocked with lynchings linked to sacrilege of Sikh texts and symbols, another incident of sacrilege has been reported in the state. This time around, Hindu religious texts and scriptures have suffered sacrilege. In Ludhiana, torn parts of Hindu religious texts were found in front of the Police Commissioner’s office on Tuesday. No lynchings have been reported in the case thus far.
The fragmented copies of Hindu religious texts were handed over to the police by Shiv Sena Punjab national president Rajiv Tandon, and others present with him. It is worth noting Shiv Sena Punjab is an altogether different organisation and is not linked to Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena.
OpIndia spoke to Shiv Sena Punjab national president Rajiv Tandon to know more about the case. He said as soon as they were informed about torn Hindu religious scriptures strewn under a Banyan tree located near a Dhaba and outside the Police Commissioner’s office, they rushed to the place, picked up the desecrated texts, and called up police commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar to inform him about the incident.
According to Tandon, they recovered torn pages of Shri Garuda Purana, Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta and other Hindu religious texts from the aforementioned place. The police, he said, has registered a complaint in the case. They have launched a preliminary investigation and nearby CCTV footage is being checked to identify the miscreants responsible for the sacrilege of Hindu religious texts.
Hindu temples vandalised, Hindu rituals insulted in Punjab
It is noteworthy to mention that this is not the first time that Hindu scriptures or Hindu temples are vandalised in Punjab. Earlier in July 2021, a Shivling was desecrated in Punjab’s Ahmedgarh, sparking anger among the Hindu community. The case pertained to an ancient temple in village Sangrur. One morning, Paramjit Kumar, who looked after the temple, found the ancient Shivling damaged and lying outside the temple. Tensions had gripped the town then as Hindu organisations launched protests to oppose the vandalisation of the temple and its presiding deity.
There have also been reports about Hindus and Hindu rituals being insulted in Punjab. In August this year, Congress councillor Sukhraj Aulakh had allegedly insulted Hindu traditions and ceremonies in one of his social media posts. He was also accused of making insulting statements about Hindu women, which had enraged members of numerous Hindu organisations.
A major controversy had then erupted over Punjab Congress councillor Sukhraj Aulakh’s alleged remarks against Hindu women and rituals. Disgruntled by the Congress leader’s derogatory remarks against Hinduism, many Hindus held a protest march against Sukhraj Aulakh in Bathinda on the occasion of Sri Krishna Janmashtami on Monday, August 30.
Following the outrage, the Congress leader rendered an apology. However, Hindus refused to accept the apology and demanded strict action against the Congress leader. They made it clear that they would go to any length to punish the Congress councillor for demonising Hinduism and Hindus, even if they have to go to court.
Punjab lynching incidents
India was recently convulsed with two horrifying cases of mob lynching that took place in Punjab over allegations of sacrilege. Angry mobs took law into their own hands and lynched two individuals to death on the suspicion of sacrilege, underscoring the abject state of law and order situation in Punjab.
The first incident of mob lynching linked to sacrilege took place inside the sanctum sanctorum of Darbar Sahib on Saturday evening when regular prayers were going on. CCTV footage showed that suddenly a man entered the sanctum sanctorum and hit the holy Granth Sahib with a Kirpan. Reportedly, he had picked up the golden Kirpan from the sanctum sanctorum of the Gurudwara itself, which was placed near the holy Sikh Scripture. Soon after the incident, he was surrounded by people present at the temple, and later his dead body was placed near the SGPC main gate, which suggests that he was beaten to death by the staff in the office.
And within 24 hours, another man in Punjab was killed over allegations of sacrilege. The incident pertained to a Gurdwara in Nizampur village in the Kapurthala district of Punjab. A man was caught at the Gurudwara for allegedly committing sacrilege. As per reports, the crowd at the Gurudwara where the youth was caught did not let the Police detain the accused. Later it was reported that the youth was lynched to death by the crowd.
While the politicians in Punjab were swift to condemn the alleged sacrilege incidents, none of them bothered denouncing the mob lynching of the two individuals who were beaten to death on suspicion of sacrilege. Initially, the police said there was no sign of sacrilege in Punjab’s Kapurthala Gurudwara. However, later the police slapped charges of ‘hurting religious sentiments’ (IPC 295) on both the men killed in Amritsar and Kapurthala. No case is yet filed on those responsible for their deaths.
