Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday demanded the suspension of the officer, who ordered the deployment of cops in the attire of priests at the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, and termed the act as “condemnable”.
The male and female policemen have been deployed at the temple in priest’s attire on the orders of Varanasi Police Commissioner Mohit Agarwal. While the male policemen have been asked to wear a dhoti-kurta, the female policemen will wear a salwar kurta, PTI reported.
Questioning this system, Akhilesh Yadav in a post on X shared a video and said, “According to which ‘police manual’ is it correct for policemen to be dressed as priests? Those who give such orders should be suspended. If tomorrow any ‘thag’ (fraudster) takes advantage of this and loots the innocent public, then what will the UP government and administration answer? Condemnable!”.
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He also posted a 35-second video of a news report on his handle.
Varanasi Police Commissioner Mohit Agarwal told reporters that people who come from faraway places to have obeisance have regard for the priests and they often get hurt if the policemen push them forward.
“The duty in the temple is different from other places as police have to manage different types of crowds here. The crowd here is not for creating law and order problems. The police are here to ensure easy darshan to people and help and guide them,” Agarwal said.
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The commissioner added, “The devotees get hurt if being pushed by policemen, however, if priests do the same thing they take it in a positive way. Following no-touch policy, policemen are being deployed in priests attire.”
(With inputs from PTI)
