Miscreants from the Hindutva brigade forced their way into Nirmala English High School and College, in Karnataka’s Mandya district to disrupt Christmas celebrations on Thursday.
The goons are alleged to have threatened the school authorities and claimed that only Christmas was being celebrated and not other ‘Hindu’ festivals. The whole episode was captured on video and is being widely shared on social media.
“We have been organising Christmas celebrations every year. But due to COVID-19 induced restrictions, we decided to call it off. At the insistence of the students, we organised a small celebration. The students had voluntarily pooled in money and ordered a cake, to which one of the parents has objected,” the headmistress Kanika Francis Mary told NDTV.
The Hindutva activists barged into the school and claimed that they were informed by a parent of one of the students that the school was “preaching Christianity” by celebrating Christmas and not Hindu festivals.
The video shows the group of men creating commotion and questioning the authorities as to why Hindu festivals were not celebrated. The school management decided to file a complaint today against the “activists” on Friday.
A man is seen threatening the school management saying, “We are leaving this decision to you, parents. If we take this into our own hands, the situation will be different.”
The headmistress also said the “activists” accused them of carrying out forceful conversions. “They delivered a scathing attack on us. The Hindu activists said they will hang a photo of Goddess Saraswati in our institution and also ordered us to celebrate Ganesh Chathurthi festival on the school premises,”
This is reportedly the second attack on a Christian institution after the draconian anti-conversion law was passed in the Karnataka state Assembly. The state police have been accused of repeatedly excusing and overlooking such acts by the Hindutva “activists”.