An incident of temple destruction has been reported in the Kakrali Mev village of Alwar district of Rajasthan. A temple structure built in the campus area of a government school to house Saraswati Mata was demolished by the locals in the area. The murti was supposed to be installed during Navratri. According to the reports, the locals vehemently protested the setting up of a temple in the school but the teachers of the school did not entertain the protesters and went ahead to build the structure.

The village Kakrali Mev has an overwhelming population of Mev-Muslim community and out of 573 children enrolled in the school, 526 belong to their community. The community members alleged that with the intention to politicise the surroundings, the school was planning to build a temple dedicated to Goddess Saraswati. When their appeals didn’t work, they threatened the school authorities that their children will stop attending the school if the construction is not stopped. Undeterred by such threats, the school completed the temple structure. Tensions in the village soared when the temple structure was defiled by aggressive members of Mev-Muslim community in the night of October 2, 2018.

The principal of the school, Ms Pushpa asserted that the construction of Saraswati Temple in the school campus was in line with the tradition of having Saraswati murtis at educational institutes and that there was no politics or any political party involved in it.

ACP Ashok Chauhan and police station-in-charge Ramnivas Mina along with their police teams are deployed in the village to control rising tensions. Members of the Hindu organizations have called for an action against the perpetrators.

When OpIndia team contacted Ramgarh Alwar police station seeking latest status on the incident, the authorities refused to comment on the issue. The issue is evidently being hushed up as even many MSM outlets have chosen to turn a blind eye on this development.