7 students of Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) Bhopal campus have been fined ₹5000 for reciting Hanuman Chalisa in their hostel rooms. A complaint was lodged against this group of students allegedly by students of other classes. Acting on the complaint, the college management sent a notice to the students ‘penalizing’ them for leading the Hanuman Chalisa recital programme.
A senior college official said that individuals are at liberty to perform puja in their rooms, but ‘group events’ could not be conducted without seeking prior permission. The college management has also sought a report from the hostel warden.
In a way, this is a perfect example of how Indian secularism wants Hindus to behave – to stop practicing their Dharma as a community and in public, to stop celebrating religious occasions and festivals, and to shun their religion as ‘regressive/oppressive/shameful’. Just do your puja alone in closed confines of your home/hostel room, as you would do in any sharia-ruled Middle Eastern country.
It is also always eye-opening to see the alacrity with which authorities act when they are asked to clamp down on any expression of Hinduness; but ask them to act against the exclusivist, aggressive communal practices of the so-called minorities, and watch them drag their feet!
The second-year students who have been targeted have launched a protest against this decision of VIT Bhopal. They have accused their juniors of conspiring against them. Again, this is not surprising. Brainwashing and de-Hinduization of youth in our secular state has become de rigueur, achieved through overt or covert Hinduphobic indoctrination via education system, popular culture, films and Westernized social mores. Parents and families are also failing to impart necessary values due to degradation of our Dharmic institutions and infrastructure.
Luckily in this case, the MP state government has taken cognisance of the matter. MP Home Minister Narottam Mishra assured the students that the college would not be allowed to impose any fines on them. “If Hanuman Chalisa is not chanted in Hindustan, then where it will be?” Mishra stated.
If our Hinduphobic elite had their way, every expression of Hindu Dharma would be snuffed out in Bharat and the rest of the world.
