In a shocking move 9 temples were demolished in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu as a part of Smart City project. The temples were located around a tank and allegedly were built encroaching its bund. Hindus who protested against the demolition drive were arrested by the police.
Coimbatore corporation has planned to rejuvenate 5 tanks in the city namely, Muthannan tank, The Big tank, Valangulam tank, Krishnampathi tank and Kurichi tank. Among these Muthannan tank’s bund was encroached by people who had built houses and we’re residing there for decades and commercial establishments.
As the Smart City project planned to remove the encroachments to recover the tank, the corporation offered houses to the encroachers in different parts of the city in Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board projects. However the deities in the temples weren’t given alternate residence. When corporation officials came to the spot to demolish the temples, Hindus of the area protested against it by sitting on dharna inside them.
State sponsored destruction of our beautiful temples continues in Secular Republic of India!💔
Coimbatore District Pusaripalayam Kumaraswamy colony Arulmigu Shri Angalaamman temple was demolished by the Coimbatore Corporation yesterday and no one cares.#FreeHinduTemples pic.twitter.com/nqEGBkuP7c
— INDIA WAKES UP 🇮🇳 (@IndiaWakesUp_) July 14, 2021
However police were having none of it and convinced the protesting Hindus to leave the site and proceeded with the demolition drive. It brought tears in the eyes of Hindus present there and some of them took the deities not wanting them to lie unattended among the rubble. Angalamman temple, Karuppasamy temple, Mariamman temple, Muthu Mariamman temple and 5 other temples located on the bund of the tank were demolished in this manner. One of these temples is said to be 100 years old while others are a few decades old.
While temples are demolished without giving the least of respect to Hindu beliefs, churches and mosques are left untouched. In the same city a mosque is built in the middle of the Periya Kadai street; It still remains there. Similarly, the Evangelical Church of India run by infamous evangelist Ezra Sargunam has encroached a lake in Chennai which went ten feet under water during the 2015 floods.
ECI had built another church on a hill in Pallavaram, Chennai in 2002 and evaded action till 2020 when Madras High Court ordered it’s eviction. While many such non-Hindu structures are treated with kid gloves when it comes to encroachment, Hindu temples and their deities are not given even the least of the sympathies and respect.
(Featured Image Source: Dailythanthi)
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