A bunch of Uttar Pradesh police officials was seen donning priest’s attire- ‘orange kurta and dhoti, rudraksha mala’ and sporting tripund (three lines made of sandalwood) on the forehead inside the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi this week.
There were six cops-two females and four males- who were wearing priest attire inside the sanctum-santorum of the famous temple.
The Uttar Pradesh Police has reportedly introduced a new dress code for the cops who will be deployed in the sanctum-sanctorum at Kashi Vishwanath temple.
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Varanasi Police Commissioner Mohit Agarwal said that they received complaints from devotees that the police, deployed in the temple, misbehaved with them and often used physical force to control the crowd.
Justifying the new experiment on cops’ new attire, the official said if the cops look like priests, devotees will adhere to their instructions smoothly.
“The duty in the temple is different from other places as police have to manage different types of crowds here. The crowd here is not for creating law and order problems. The police is here to ensure easy darshan to people and help and guide them,” Agarwal said.
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Further, the “priests-cum-cops” would have to welcome the devotees with the chants of “Har Har Mahadev”, and would also guide them about other religious spots of Varanasi.
“The devotees get hurt if being pushed by policemen, if same thing is done by priests they take it in a positive way. Following no touch policy, policemen are being deployed in priests attire,” he added.
The UP cops would be given special 3-day training and will be deployed inside Kashi Vishwanath’s sanctum sanctorum.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has demanded the suspension of the officer, seen in cops attire at the temple.
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Yadav in a post on X said, “According to which ‘police manual’ is it correct for policemen to be dressed as priests? Those who give such orders should be suspended. If tomorrow any ‘thag’ (fraudster) takes advantage of this and loots the innocent public, then what will the UP government and administration answer? Condemnable!”.
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Published: 13 Apr 2024, 08:46 AM IST