New Delhi: A day after a video from a school in Karnataka showing students re-enacting the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition was circulated on social media, four persons including RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat and members of the governing body of the school, have been charged under Sections 295A and 298 of the IPC, according to a report in the News Minute.
In the video circulated, students can be seen rushing towards a huge poster of the Babri Masjid while a narrator urges them to tear down the structure over a loudspeaker and says, “With enthusiasm, Hanuman bhakts with Hanuman’s anger, they bring down Babri structure. Bolo Shri Ramachandra ki, Jai!”. The students reportedly put up a ‘Ram Temple’ after tearing down the poster.
The video was reportedly taken at Sri Rama Vidyakendra High School in Kalladka in Karnataka which is allegedly owned by RSS leader Prabhakar Bhat. Children from class 11 and 12 were made to participate in the enactment of the demolition.
Karnataka school run by RSS man makes kids ‘demolish’ Babri Masjid in a play
The Chief Guests for the event were Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers, DV Sadananda Gowda; Puducherry Governor Kiran Bedi; and several Ministers from Karnataka. pic.twitter.com/hVdqxvfdvI
— Sanyukta (@dramadhikari) December 16, 2019
The event was attended by Union minister and BJP MP Sadananda Gowda along with Puducherry governor and former cop Kiran Bedi.
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Speaking to the News Minute, the Dakshina Kannada superintendent of police Laxmi Prasad said that Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat, Narayan Somayyaji, Vasanth Madhav and Chinnappa Kotiyan had been named in the FIR registered under Sections 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings) and 298 (uttering, words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person) of the Indian Penal Code by the Bantwal Town police.
The FIR was registered based on a complaint a PFI activist and resident of the area, Aboobacker Siddique.
Bhat, who owns the school and is the RSS’s south-central region executive committee member had been referred to by journalist Gauri Lankesh, who was shot dead in 2017 allegedly by Hindutva forces outside her house. Lankesh wrote:
“Bhat’s work was to ensure that the subtle communal agitation started by Sangh Parivar in Kalladka is spread to the entire South Canara region and Udupi District in an organised manner so as to also feed the saffronisation required for the upcoming assembly election.”
Speaking to the News Minute about not following the Supreme Court’s orders on the demolition of the Babri mosque, Bhat said he didn’t agree with the recent judgement. “Even though the Supreme Court has said that what happened to Babri (masjid) was wrong, we have questioned that part of the judgment itself. We cannot accept everything that is said in the judgment. I don’t agree with it,” Bhat said.
Bhat also argued that there was nothing wrong in depicting what he believed was a historical event. “It is not a mosque. It is just a building. It is a historical event that we are depicting. We have depicted Jallianwala Bagh as well. Did anyone highlight that? There are hundreds of instances like this and we have to show the injustices that have happened in our country,” Bhat said.