The Mahanlingeshwar Temple in Karnataka’s Puttur district has limited the sale of temporary booths for the city’s annual Jatra festival to the Hindu community. Only Hindus will be able to put up their stalls during the ten-day Jatra festival, which will be held in the temple precinct between April 10 and 20.
Source: varthabharti.in
To mark the change, the Temple management published an announcement in the English newspaper The Hindu on March 19, 2022. In a similar vein, the Kote Marikamba Jatra in Shivamogga has announced that only Hindu merchants would be allowed to set up business during the five-day celebration, which begins on March 22. After Hindu organisations urged that the committee make a verdict in light of the death of Hindu activist Harsha by radical Islamists in Shivamogga, the committee agreed.
Earlier this year, the Hosa Marigudi Temple in Udupi, Karnataka, chose to assign stores at its annual fair to exclusively Hindu retailers. After Muslims in the coastal region shut down their stores on March 17 to protest the Karnataka High Court’s judgement on the hijab dispute, the committee decided to allow only Hindus to set up booths for the annual ‘Suggi Mari Pooja.’
The Mahanlingeshwar Temple in Puttur has followed in the footsteps of the temples at Shivamogga and Udupi. Only Hindu merchants will be permitted to participate in the Jothravati festival, which is set to take place in April this year, read the statement issued by the temple management. The temporary merchants would be granted the location indicated by the temple administration after the pooja in front of the temple during the Jatra.
Gaurav Gaur
March 24, 2022 at 12:57 pm
This is utterly unfair. I am struggling to find a logic behind not letting Muslims open shops. What’s the point in snatching someone’s usual livelihood when it is been in prevalence for years?