The incident of a Christian doctor in Tamil Nadu refusing to remove her footwear while sitting inside a temple has woken many slumbering Hindus out of their trance. The doctor was part of the team that administered vaccines in a village in Vellore. Despite people pointing out her mistake the doctor refused to respect Hindus’ belief and continued to be adamant about wearing footwear inside the temple.
As a part of the government’s efforts to vaccinate everyone and contain the third wave, a vaccination drive was conducted in the Muthalamman temple in Poigai village, Vellore. Regine, a doctor from the Vellore Government Hospital was part of the team that arrived to vaccinate the villagers. While other members of the team left their footwear outside the temple, Regina sat in front of the garbhagriha without removing her footwear.
When the offended villagers asked her to remove it she arrogantly asked “is there a board saying one shouldn’t wear footwear inside the temple?”. As she refused to remove them Hindus refused to get vaccinated unless she left the temple.
Later when the issue escalated with the arrival of Hindu Munnani functionaries, she took a u-turn and said that she wore footwear for fear of contracting Covid-19 if she went barefoot. But the village Hindus weren’t budging and in the end doctor Regina left the temple. Villagers agreed to take the vaccines only after the nurses who accompanied the doctor apologised for her behaviour.
While secular Hindus go as far as leaving their footwear outside churches to respect Christians’ religious beliefs, the likes of doctor Regina is what they get in return. When a Catholic priest abuses Hindu beliefs by saying he wears footwear to avoid getting scabies from touching bhooma Devi, there is no wonder in Christians behaving this way. Shockingly they have the support of the ruling party as well as a DMK minister himself declared in a church event that DMK won because of the prayers of Christians.
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