Madhya Pradesh-based 35-year-old businessman Sumit Rathore on Saturday adopted monkhood in the Jain religion in a ceremony held in Gujarat’s Surat while his 34-year-old wife Anamika has “postponed” her initiation after the State administration intervened on behalf of their three-year-old child.
The couple’s sudden announcement to renounce worldly life, including their three-year-old daughter and businesses valued at about ₹100 crore, to embrace Jain monasticism triggered a controversy, with several organisations and individuals seeking the government’s intervention to prevent them from leaving the child without carrying out the necessary procedures for guardianship.
Kutch-based paediatrician Dr. Rajesh Maheshwari was among the first people to tweet Union Minister of Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), asking them to stop the couple in the interests of their child.
Subsequently, Gujarat State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (GSCPCR) directed the civil administration in Surat to ensure that, without following the proper procedure to appoint guardians for the child, one of the parents should not be allowed to take the initiation.
Ceremony held
“Today, the ceremony was held in which only Sumit has taken the deeksha (initiation) while his wife will follow after legally appointing the guardian of their daughter,” Surat District Collector Mahendra Patel told The Hindu .
He added that Anamika’s parents had submitted an affidavit stating that they would take care of their granddaughter but this was not carried out legally by the parents.
Anamika's father Ashok Chandaliya, a former Neemuch district president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said before the ceremony was held in Surat, “I am not against my daughter Anamika becoming a nun.”
Sumit’s father Rajendra Singh, who runs a factory manufacturing gunny bags for packaging cement, also echoed a similar view and claimed that family members did not wish to discourage the couple from “pursuing their spiritual path.”
Sumit and Anamika decided to renounce the material world for spiritual pursuits when their daughter was just eight months old, Sumit’s cousin Sandip Rathore claimed, adding the couple waited for more than two years for the sake of their child.
