BHOPAL: In two separate incidents, villagers belonging to the Dalit community were barred from offering prayers at Shiva temples in Madhya Pradesh during Mahashivratri on Saturday.
Women belonging to the Balai community in Chhoti Kasrawad village of Khargone district said that the dominant caste men and women blocked their families from offering prayers and assaulted their children including two girls.
“They (men belonging to the dominant Darbar caste) even threatened to throw our children out from the temple,” one Sharmila Bai alleged.
The local leader of the Bhim Army Sunil Chouhan alleged that though the police have filed a case in the matter, the name of the main accused was not added to the FIR.
According to sub-divisional officer police (SDOP-Mandaleshwar) Manohar Singh Gavali, “there was a quarrel between two groups of devotees while offering prayers at the temple. On the complaint of one group, an FIR has been lodged against five persons from another group.”
The FIR was lodged u/s 294, 323, and 34 IPC, besides provisions of the SC/ST (Atrocities) Act. But nowhere in the FIR was it mentioned that Dalit women, men, and children were stopped from worshipping at the temple. Instead, it was mentioned that pushing and shoving during prayers resulted in quarrels, leading to violent assault.
Meanwhile, in the adjoining Khandwa district’s Bailwadi village of Bharadi village panchayat, Dalit devotees were reportedly stopped by the temple priest from offering prayers at the temple on Mahashivratri. However, the local police rushed to the spot and intervened, after which the Dalit people were allowed to offer prayers at the temple.