Mangaluru: Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal held a press meet regarding the Puttur Mahalingeshwar invitation row at Hotel Woodlands here, on March 28.
Addressing the mediapersons, Working President of VHP Dakshina Kannada Pranth, Prof M B Puranik said, “The invitations printed in the name of Deputy Commissioner, A B Ibrahim are just to hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus. Many clarifications in this regard have been given by the administration. They have said that this is an act of intolerance, but they should know that tolerance is the basis of Hinduism. We don’t want any politicians to teach us a lesson about tolerance.”
“If this would have happened to other religions, would they tolerate it?” he asked. He said that VHP or any other Hindu outfits did not have any personal issues with DC Ibrahim. “It is wrong for a person to send out invitations for Hindu religious programmes when he has no belief in Hinduism,” he added.
He said that the invitation invited believers to receive the Ganda-Prasada, but since the invitation was given by a non-believer, it had hurt the emotions of Hindus, it is against the provisions of Karnataka Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowment Act 1997 and hence Ibrahim had broken the laws. “Ibrahim had clarified that the protocol was followed when the invitations were printed, but this is false as the protocols don’t specify printing the name of the invitee,” he added.
Prof Puranik said, “DC is not the head of the district, but he is just an officer appointed by the government of India. We could not protest when the invitations were printed during the festival at Kukke Subramanya as the invitations were sent at the last minute. The trend of printing invitations in the name of non-believers has to stop somewhere.”
He further said that a peaceful prayer was organised on March 29 in front of the Mahalingeshwar temple, Puttur at 10 am. The aim of the prayer service was to turn the tide in favour of Hindus.
DK Prantha Sanyojaka, Bajrang Dal, Sharan Pumpwell and others were also present.
