Amid the Hijab row in Karnataka wherein muslim girl students are barred from entering schools and colleges wearing hijab, the Tamilnadu police took a bold step recently and booked case against 20 priests of the Chidambaram Nataraja Temple under SC/ST atrocities act for not allowing a Dalit women to enter the temple and verbally abused her with casteist slurs.
According to a report, the police in Cuddalore booked a case under the Schedule Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against 20 priests of a famous Chidambaram Nataraja temple.
The incident came to light when the country is already grappling with cultural divide due to hijab row wherein Muslim girls wearing headscarf are not being allowed to enter their schools and colleges in several parts of Karnataka state.
The issue escalated further when the college at Shiralakoppa in Shivamogga district suspended 58 students for entering the college premises wearing hijab.
This episode has already opened a deep wound and caused an outrage among Muslim community thereby created a cultural conflict between the two communities in the country.
However, the Tamilnadu incident came as a numbing surprise where the local police has summon-up the courage and booked cases against the priests for not allowing a Dalit women to offer prayer to the deity and even verbally abused her with castiest slur.
Going into detail, the police in Cuddalore took bold to file a case after a woman from SC community filed a complaint alleging that the priests of the temple have not been allowed to offer prayers and shunted her out without having an audience of the deity.
Lakshmi, a 36 year old resident of Old Bhuvanagiri Road Old, has alleged in her complaint that the priests also abused her verbally using casteist slur. Though the police registered a case under SC/ST Atrocities Act no arrests have been made so far in the case.
Though the bravado act of the Tamilnadu police is being welcomed from every corner, the attitude of police in Karnataka viewed as most lethargic and unilateral when it comes to acting against the teachers and management of the educational institutions who unabashedly barred the entry of Muslim girl students wearing hijab into class rooms.
While the Karnataka police failed to act against the teachers and management at the beginning of the controversy, it jumped into action to book the girls who hold the protest against the management of their institutions for not allowing them into classes wearing hijab.
