Hindu residents of Jogirampura village are asking what’s the point of living in the village if they can’t use ... Read More

BIJNOR: A dispute over loudspeakers on the roof of a temple in a Bijnor village has now escalated with threats by Hindu residents to leave the village en masse if the devices were not allowed. In protest many of them have now put up notices on the door of their houses saying their property is 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 minority 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, late on Friday night notices appeared outside Hindu homes saying "This house for sale". According to villagers, 10 years ago a set of loudspeakers had been installed on the temple and had 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.

“Of the 4,000 people in the village, 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 whose house also sported the "for sale" notice.

“We were oppressed during the SP and BSP regimes. We were waiting for the BJP to come to power so we could install the loudspeakers. We urged the HYV to install them. But if we can’t do this even now, 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 other community said they have no problems if the loudspeakers are used only for festivals. But they want Hindus not to use them every day as all the houses around the temple belong to members of the minority community. The meetings have ended in a stalemate so far,” said Najibabad sub-divisional magistrate VK Singh.