look news india
Preparations are going on in full swing across the country for the upcoming Shardiya Navratri festival, while on the other hand, a heated debate has erupted regarding security, discipline and religious dignity during cultural events. In this connection, right-wing and cultural organizations have started advocating for taking strict steps, in which major organizations like Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal have taken an aggressive stance. The organizations have clearly demanded that there should be a complete ban on entry of non-Hindus in Garba and Dandiya festivals organized across the country. While saying that the events should be preserved only as a traditional and religious festival, VHP has made it clear that it has now become extremely important to ensure the identity of every person before allowing entry into the festival pandals so that any untoward situation or cultural disruption can be avoided.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad and its affiliated organizations have emphasized that the organizers of Garba Pandals and Dandiya Night will have to be extremely cautious on the security front this time. Officials of the organization believe that in the last few years, due to commercialization of these events and increase in crowd, many such incidents have come to light which were contrary to religious and cultural beliefs. To stop this, VHP has demanded that strict checking should be done at the entry gate itself by security personnel or volunteers. It should be mandatory for every person to show his/her official identity card to gain entry inside the pandal to confirm that the person visiting the pandal belongs to the community for which the traditional festival is being organised. The organizers have been advised to prepare a strong security network in collaboration with the local administration in this regard.
The main argument given behind this tough stance of VHP is that sometimes mischievous elements or people from other communities enter these cultural events by hiding their identity, which spoils the atmosphere of festivals and also hurts social harmony. The organization also claims that Garba pandals are sometimes used as a deliberate strategy to further other agendas, which will not be tolerated at any cost. Describing women’s safety as paramount in these grand events lasting nine days of Navratri, workers have been instructed to keep a close watch inside the pandals themselves. If any suspicious person tries to enter without valid identification or against the rules, he should be immediately apprehended and handed over to the police. With such security measures, not only will discipline be maintained in the events, but the possibility of any kind of tension within the society can also be avoided in time.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad has not limited itself to raising demands but has also appealed to the administrative machinery and local organizing committees to take concrete steps in this direction. The organization says that every small and big committees organizing Garba and Dandiya should strictly follow the guidelines of the government and police administration. The police administration has also been asked to deploy security forces around sensitive areas and big pandals so that no anti-social element gets a chance to create a ruckus. This time during Navratri, local workers of VHP will enter the field with full alertness and will keep a close watch on the arrangements of every pandal. This step taken to protect the cultural heritage and preserve the original spirit of the festivals has become a big and talked about topic in the Navratri celebrations this time, on which the eyes of the entire country are fixed.