Bengaluru: In a recent incident in Karnataka’s capital Bengaluru, the idol of Lord Ganesha, known as the ‘Vignaharta’ (the one who removes obstacles) was seated inside a police van assigned to transport arrested protesters gathered at Bengaluru’s Town Hall against the attack on a Ganesh Visarjan procession in Nagamangala. The images of the idol inside the van soon went viral on social media drawing strong disapproval from different groups.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders have condemned the act and expressed how the deity was “also among those arrested”. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also recently spoken on the issue.
“In Congress-ruled Karnataka, even Ganpati is being put in jail,” PM Modi said at an election rally in Haryana.
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What Exactly Happened?
Protests were planned across Karnataka by various groups following the Nagamangala incident, which saw two communities clashing and led to arson. A protest was organised in Bengaluru by the Bengaluru Metropolitan Ganesh Utsav Committee at the city’s Town Hall area. However, they were denied permission by the police for the protest, yet a WhatsApp message was circulated asking people to gather at Town Hall as part of the protest. According to rules in Bengaluru, the designated area for protests is Freedom Park. When the city police received information about plans for people to gather at Town Hall, two platoons of policemen were deployed.
Protesters started arriving in small groups, and by 11.30 am, there were close to 20 to 30 people gathered, raising slogans within the hour.
Since the protesters had gathered without prior police permission, cops began taking them into custody and moving them towards the parked police van.
A senior police official stated that a group of people who claimed they were taking a Ganesha idol for visarjan (immersion) joined the protest. They raised the Ganesha idol, which was around 1.55 feet tall, on their heads and began chanting slogans, News18 reported.
“The police had already started detaining the protesters, and on realising that the Ganesha idol was left on the ground, our officer quickly picked up the idol and put it in a safe place,” explained Bengaluru police commissioner B Dayananda to News18.
Photographs show an inspector taking the idol and placing it in an empty police van intended for the protesters. The sight of Lord Ganesha alone in the van caught the eye of photographers, and the image later went viral on social media. Later, the Ganesha idol was moved into a police jeep when the protesters were bundled into the van.
The BJP condemned the act of placing the idol inside a police van. BJP MP Tejasvi Surya expressed concern on social media site X.
The police commissioner countered this and said, “How could we leave Lord Ganesha unattended? Our officer ensured that the idol was taken safely, and since it was meant to be taken for visarjan, the visarjan was done in a local police station with all respect and devotion. The picture of Ganesha inside the van shows how we ensured the sanctity and respect of the idol, not otherwise.” Forty people were arrested for participating in the protest, which had been carried out without permission from the police department.
Senior VHP leader Girish Bharadwaj called the incident “heartbreaking and unfortunate to see Lord Ganesha being taken away by police like a criminal”. He stated that it was a peaceful protest in Bengaluru against the intelligence failure of the police in Nagamangala.
“There seem to be restrictions on celebrating Hindu festivals. Why don’t they impose restrictions on other communities as well? In Nagamangala, the organisers were booked. Those who faced lathicharge for being part of a peaceful visarjan procession were booked. That was what the protest at Town Hall was about. Instead, they took away the Ganesha idol and placed it inside a Hoysala (police van). The way the photos show the police officers running with the idol, as if Ganesha himself were a criminal, was heart-wrenching,” Bharadwaj said.