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An Uttar Pradesh police initiative to dress their personnel in priest’s attire: rudraksha mala, orange kurta, dhoti and tripund (three lines made of sandalwood) on the forehead inside the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi has gone viral on social media. It received mixed responses.
The Varanasi police stationed six of its personnel: two females and four males wearing priest’s attire inside the Sanctum Santorum of the famous temple to help with the management of the devotees.
“The duty inside the temple is dissimilar from other places where police have to control crowds. The police are here to ensure easy darshan and guide devotees,” Mohit Agarwal, Varanasi Police Commissioner told reporters. These police personnel have been given three-days of training and the initiative is for a 15-day trial period, after which it will be reviewed. Varanasi police said the initiative was launched after it received complaints from devotees that the cops, deployed inside the temple often used force to control the crowd, adding if the deployed personnel look like priests, devotees would follow instructions.
Leader of the opposition in U.P. and former CM Akhilesh Yadav had questioned the initiative. He wanted to know which police manual allowed such a change in uniform. He demanded the suspension of officials who ordered the initiative. “Which ‘police manual’ permits policemen to be dressed as priests? The officials responsible should be suspended. If tomorrow a ‘thag’ (cheater) takes advantage of this and loots the innocent public, how will the Uttar Pradesh government respond? Condemnable,” he wrote on X.