By Matters India Reporter
Ahmedabad, Feb 22, 2023: The Catholic Church in the western Indian state of Gujarat state has sought police protection after one of its schools faced a ruckus by a right wing Hindu mob.
“We request you to take necessary action against such unruly elements and grant us police protection so that no untoward situation occurs in our premises or to any member of our institution,” Father Teles Fernandes, secretary of the Gujarat Education Board of Catholic Institutions, wrote to state Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel.
The February 20 letter also urged him to provide protection to St. Mary’s Higher Secondary School in Amreli, some 245 km southwest of Ahmedabad, the state’s commercial capital.
The mob on February 20 insisted installing the pictures of Hindu deities in classrooms and the principal’s office.
School principal Father Binu Kunnel told Matters India on February 22, “The crowd spent the whole day in the school campus insisting on their demand, however, did not unleash any violence.”
The principal also added that the ruckus seemed to be part of a planned operation to tarnish the school’s image.
Father Fernandes’ letter said the “unruly large group” comprised members of the vishwa Hindu Parishad (world Hindu council) and Bajrang Dal (Brigade of Lord Hanuman).
He dismissed the allegations raised by the mob against the school management as “totally false.”
He said the mob demanded that the school put up photos of Saraswati Mata, Bharat Mata and Vivekananda in the principal’s office and class rooms.
Such demands, he said, were “totally unacceptable in a democratic and secular country like India. We as a minority group, feel threatened and intimidated by such elements.”
The principal said the incident has not perturbed the school management.
“We have the support of our students and parents,” he said and added, “our school has completed 25-years and no such incident has ever taken place.”