The demand for banning non-Hindus from Hindu temples and temple festivals continues in Karnataka. The latest is the demand to ban non-Hindu traders from the fair in a temple in Gubbi in Tumakuru District. On February 1, Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) petitioned the Tumakuru District Collector YS Patil to forbid non-Hindu vendors from participating in Thursday’s fair at the Gosala Sri Channabasaveshwara Swamy Temple in Gubbi. One of the numerous well-known festivals held in the Tumakuru district is the Shree Channabasaveshwara Mandir Mela.
Hindu organizations appealed to the Collector in a memorandum, requesting that non-Hindu traders not be permitted to conduct business within 100 metres of the temple grounds. The fair is held at this temple, which is in the Muzrai division. The Hindu leaders said that if non-Hindu traders are found doing business in the mela, they will remove such vendors from the premises.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal activists had earlier, on January 14, raised ‘boycott banners’ in opposition to Muslim vendors at a religious fair in Kavuru, outside of Mangalore. The banner was displayed on the grounds of the Department of Religious Endowments’ Shree Mahalingeshwar Temple, from January 14 to January 18, as part of the religious fair.
The Bajrang Dal workers said, that the temple management committee meeting was where the boycott decision was made.
The banner had read, ‘Anyone who views idol worship as “haram” has no place in society.’