Hindus threaten to leave UP village over loudspeakers

A dispute over loudspeakers on the roof of a temple in a Bijnor village has now escalated with Hindu residents threatening to leave the village en masse if the devices were not allowed. In protest, many of them have put up notices saying their property is up for sale.

Police have been deployed in force to prevent an outbreak of violence, but the area continued to be restive on Saturday .

The dispute in Jogirampura village of Najibabad tehsil started after loudspeakers were installed atop a Shiva temple on Wednesday on the occasion of Ram Navami. The installation was carried out by local Hindus led by members of the Hindu Yuva Vahini. The other community objected to it, which led to a confrontation.Police and administrative officers soon arrived at the spot and removed the loudspeakers.

Reacting angrily to the official action, notices appeared outside Hindu homes on Friday night saying `This house for sale’. According to villagers, a set of loudspeakers had been installed on the temple 10 years ago, which had then been removed.”This is not the first time loudspeakers were put up. We are only re-installing them.There should be no objection to that,” said NP Singh, area coordinator of Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV).

“Of the 4,000 people in the village, only 500 are Hindu. The temple is 400 years old. After the loudspeakers were removed in 2007, we have been using them inside the temple. The other community uses loudspeakers on top of their place of worship regularly,” said Naresh Saini, a resident of the village.

“We were oppressed during the SP and BSP regimes.We were waiting for BJP to come to power so we could in stall the loudspeakers. We urged the HYV to install them. But if we can’t do this even with a BJP government in the state, what is the point of living in this village? We do not feel safe,” Saini added.

President of the temple committee, Dayaram Saini, said, “Authorities have told us we can use loudspeakers only during festivals. We have refused this. We will use loudspeakers every day during aarti.” Authorities have held several rounds of discussions with both communities. “The meetings have ended in a stalemate so far,” said Najibabad sub-divisional magistrate, VK Singh.