An FIR was registered against a former Delhi University professor Ashok Vohra, on Tuesday night, for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of Hindus during his speech at the Mohan Lal Sukhadia (MLS) University in Udaipur.
On Tuesday evening several right-wing groups blocked the highway at Udaipur to pressurise the police into filing an FIR against the professor.
Hanuman Prasad, Additional Superintendent of Police Udaipur, said, “One Devendra Singh from the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad filed an FIR [at the Pratap Nagar Police Station at Udaipur] stating that professor Vohra's speech hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus.”
Also, on Rajasthan government’s orders, a complaint was filed against Prof. Vohra, on Tuesday, for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of Hindus during his speech.
On December 3, Prof. Vohra delivered a lecture at MLS University on the topic ‘Religious Dialogue: Need of The Hour,’ where he referred to the foreign view of the Hindu Gods and Goddesses, which few professors and right-wing groups found derogatory to Hinduism.
Large parts of the speech, accessed by The Hindu , speaks highly of Hinduism as being a liberal religion. However, some part of the speech is an analysis of Hinduism by foreign authors including Paul B. Courtright, Wendy Doniger and David Kinsley, which few people in the audience raised objections to.
Prof. Vohra, who was the former Head of the Philosophy Department at Delhi University said to The Hindu, “I referred to the writings of few foreign authors who have analysed Hinduism from their perspective, which I think is the wrong way to look at Hinduism. I quoted the authors to explain their view of the religion, which included the sexual references to Lord Ganesha, Shiva, and Goddess Lakshmi [among others].”
“However, they misinterpreted the references as my thoughts, which is wrong,” Prof. Vohra said, who was interrupted twice by the audience during his speech, said.
On December 7, members of the ABVP met the Rajasthan Higher Education Minister Kali Charan Saraf to complain about the speech.
ABVP’s State organisation secretary (Rajasthan) Mithilesh Gautam said, “Professor Vohra named Lord Ganesha and Shiva, among several other Hindu Gods and Goddesses, and quoted foreign authors while making sexual references through the body structure and symbolism used in Hinduism. We found it disrespectful towards Hinduism.”
Speaking to The Hindu , Mr. Saraf said, “It is a very serious matter. We will not tolerate any insult to Hindu gods and goddesses.”
On ABVP’s complaint, Mr. Saraf asked the vice-chancellor of MLS University to file an FIR against the professor. A committee has been formed at the university to look into the details of Prof. Vohra’s speech and find whether the speech used derogatory references to Hinduism.
On Tuesday, a complaint was registered at the Pratap Nagar police station in Udaipur by the Dean of the University’s College of Social Science and Humanities Farida Shah.
Ms. Shah said to The Hindu , “Most of the lecturers and students attending Prof. Vohra’s speech found that it hurt their religious sentiments. A committee set up at the university will look into the issue, but we have filed a complaint in the Pratap Nagar police station [at Udaipur].”
