Team Herald
PONDA: The committee of Vithoba temple at Ponda has alleged that the election observers and flying squads have been stopping all their religious programmes in the temple before 10 pm without respecting the tradition.
Addressing a press conference, the committee members alleged that the flying squad stopped the four-day midnight religious activities of Virbadra and Shigmo that have a tradition of more than 350 years.
Calling action of the flying squad as harassment, the committee claimed that such stopping of the religious activities has hurt the feelings of Mahajans and thousands of devotees.
“On the occasion, dramas were arranged but on all the four days, the election squad arrived and stopped the same before 10 pm creating strong ill-feeling among the devotees of Vithoba and other four temples affiliated to it,” the committee members said.
Temple Committee President Gaurish Colvekar said, “There is also tradition among us to pray the Pir of Muslim community which shows that the custom is several centuries old. Dramas are usually held late in the night after 10 pm, but considering harassment by election observers in view of the code of conduct, the organisers started it as early as 8.30 pm, but were forced wind up by 10 pm before the drama could be completed.”
Similarly, he said that there was Virbadra Procession which must as per tradition, be held at 12 midnight, but that also could not be held due election squad and observers pressurising to complete the procession before 10 pm.
“This is encroachment into our religious festival as they are not related to election in any way. In case our committee was involved in political campaign nobody would have asked them,” Colvekar said.
“Everybody understands that EC stopped the government sponsored Shigmo parade at 10 pm and nobody obstructed it as it is not a traditional festival. They should not mix up the issues and stop the traditional rituals that are not connected with elections. In 2014 also the annual Shigmo and Virbadra procession were held but nobody had come to stop us showing time restriction of 10 pm,” he said.
He said the committee even approached to EC office for permission. “We told them ours is a traditional activity. We met the Ponda police, but still there were objections. During the four-day programme, we were not permitted to beat drums and tashas and sound system after 10 pm citing code of conduct as against all the programmes were scheduled to happen after 10 pm,” he said.
Others who addressed the press briefing include Uday Tilve, Gaurish Verenkar, Sandeep Verenkar and Prashant Verenkar.
