Hindu groups 'ban' Muslims from setting up stalls at temple festival

Shivamogga/Udupi: Even while the heat and turmoil created by the Hijab controversy is thinning down, the Coast and the Malnad cities of Udupi and Shivamogga are whipping up another confrontation with the Muslims. The Hindu fringe outfits have banned the Muslim traders from taking part in the 'Maari Jathre' (Maari temple festival) in Kaup in Udupi and Shivamogga city.

The Bajrang Dal and a few other fringe groups have issued a diktat not to permit Muslim traders to put up shops in the fair that is an integral part of the festival.

Alarmed by the diktat the temple committee went into a frenzy and called an emergency meeting on Sunday to decide the future course of action, but the fringe groups got a whiff of the meeting and gate-crashed into the meeting and urged the committee about their stand.

The stalls were already given away to the bidders as the contractor who had floated a tender had collected money from all classes of traders including the Muslim traders.

Earlier in Kaup in Udupi district had also faced a similar ordeal. Maari temples in Shivamogga and Kaup will hold the annual festival on Tuesday.

The Maari temple is dedicated to deities (Maari) that nullifies chances or disasters like epidemics, floods, droughts, dangerous diseases for both humankind and animal-kind.

Both in Kaup and Shivamogga people from all religions visit the festival and mingle with people from the Hindu community and offer prayers and receive prasadams standing side by side.

There are Muslim and Christian families who participate in the annual rituals and offer chicken as a sacrifice.

At this festival, thousands of birds are offered as a sacrificial item to the temple and most of the vendors of chicken are Muslims. On Tuesday this will not be the case.

Ahmed Aslam, a chicken dealer who last year had put up a stall in Shivmogga told Hans News Service that "I used to make a handsome profit during the Maari jathra, this year the chicken prices have gone through the roof and was expecting to double the income.

The Hindu fraternity does not think about the cost when they make their offerings of chicken.

Like always I planned to contribute a sizable portion of my income to the temple development fund, like always did, but this time I and my brother in Kaup have not been allotted a slot in the fair".

Temple authorities in both Shivamogga and Kaup have tried to reason with the fringe groups during the fiery meetings they had on Sunday but could not break the ice in the matter.