‘The Items We Bought at This Stall displaying a Saffron Flag atop the shop were More Expensive than the same kind of items we bought at the stall with no saffron flag (You know what I mean?) ‘- Ms Suma Shetty from Andheri (W) in Mumbai who is visiting her hometown to watch Mangaluru Dasara and was on a shopping spree at the Mangaladevi Temple Dasara festival
“The flame of hatred will not prevail in the land of harmony for long. It is being proved again that Karnataka has more minds that want to live unitedly, rather than in disharmony. Let Coastal Karnataka, which is being labelled as a laboratory of communalism, be a school of harmony. Let people of the coast unite for this.”-CM Siddaramaiah on Twitter
Mangaluru: The Mangaluru Dasara is a great festival liked and patronized by people irregular of caste, creed or religion, so why even a small group of saffron activists are trying to bring communal disharmony by enforcing few restrictions on traders doing business to earn their daily bread at temple festivals. While every trader of different faiths are happy and friendly with their customers doing their business at other Dasara celebration hosted by a bunch of other temples in the City, including Kudroli Gokarnanatheshwara Temple, why are we seeing communal hatred spread by a group regarding allowing festival stalls EXCLUSIVELY for HINDUS and banning traders of other faiths? Bah humbug!
But if you look at the way people are shopping at these make-shift stalls, whether they are displaying the saffron flag or not, shoppers are least bothered about it, and are shopping as per their liking-which makes Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s call has no impact on customers at festival fair, at Mangaladevi temple vicinity. Though Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders had appealed to devotees to buy items only from merchant stalls of Hindus, where the organisation has already put up saffron flags, people have ignored their call.
Today, Team Mangalorean walked around the busy shopping street in front of the Mangaladevi Temple where all these stalls are set up, and interacted with shoppers about their opinions, whether it is right to shop only at a stall displaying a saffron flag or any other stall which has no such flag- and surprisingly all of them were against the move enforced by a saffron outfit backed up by the temple management. Mrs Suma Shetty, a resident of Andheri (W) Mumbai at present, but originally a Kudla woman said, ” I had bought two stainless steel vessels at a stall (not knowing it had a saffron flag atop) and paid Rs 250 for the pair, and little further down the road I bought a pair of same kind of vessels for Rs 160 at a stall having no saffron flag. Now I realise how the owner of this stall in my community is trying to rip off a woman belonging to the same community. Bah humbug! The district administration or MCC should ban all such discrimination towards traders, during temple festivals. We don’t have such kind of issues in Mumbai, where everyone does business at fairs equally, irrespective of religion”
Interacting with two other women clad in burqas, I asked ” I guess you don’t mind doing business at a stall displaying a saffron flag”- and quickly came the response, “What flag are you talking about Sir?”. I had to explain about the controversy going on, for which they said, “Living a few blocks from this Temple, we have been enjoying the fair for decades, and we have never heard about the shopping only at stalls displaying saffron flags. We shop wherever we feel like, and where there is better deal/bargain, and not if the stall has a saffron flag or not ” Yet another shopper from Jeppu who was busy shopping for dress material and pottery at the fair on Saturday, said she had not even paid attention to whether the shop had a flag or not.
Yet another Muslim trader from out of Karnataka having a stall, with a saffron flag planted on top, selling an assortment of items ranging from bangles to utensils on Mangaladevi temple road said “A group of people came on October 17 morning and asked me to display a saffron flag. I agree, But people are not bothered either way and buy what they want. Business was down for all traders, irrespective of the community they belonged to and whether they had a saffron flag fluttering on top or not. The business in the last six days of the festival had not been great, but it had nothing to do with flags. The business has been generally bleak this year for all and I hope to make good business in the next six days”.
A large number of people, including women and children from different faiths, are seen lining up in front of stalls put up on either side of the road leading to the famous Sri Mangaladevi temple, without considering the religion of the merchant, during the Navaratri celebrations. A Hindu merchant says “People do not see the religion of a merchant when they buy an item at a festival stall. People, including Muslim women, have been visiting stalls looking for the items they want to buy,” In fact, VHP district president HK Purushothama had issued a statement, demanding the district administration of Dakshina Kannada allots stalls in the premises of endowment temples only to Hindu merchants.
Further, he also appealed to devotees to buy items only from Hindu merchants, where saffron flags are put up, at the festival fair of Sri Mangaladevi temple. Similarly, VHP leader Sharan Pumpwell said that the organisation has been demanding stalls only for Hindus during festivals at endowment temples. However, he said that all other temples also should consider allotting stalls only to Hindu merchants. “Let others conduct business outside the temple premises, and away from ratha beedi,” he said.
Dakshina Kannada District Muslim Okkoota president K Ashraf said that the efforts of Sangh Parivar to use the 800-year-old Mangaladevi temple for their selfish motives will not be successful. “Sri Mangaladevi Temple has its historical significance. Dividing merchants and customers based on religion is unconstitutional. The people of the district should realize the conspiracy of the Sangh Parivar,” he added.
Meanwhile, reacting to the incident, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah @siddaramaiah wrote on X: “The flame of hatred will not prevail in the land of harmony for long. It is being proved again that Karnataka has more minds that want to live unitedly, rather than in disharmony. Let Coastal Karnataka, which is being labelled as a laboratory of communalism, be a school of harmony. Let people of the coast unite for this.”
As many as 82 stalls have been put up for the annual Navaratri festival at the ancient Mangaladevi temple in Mangaluru and this trader’s shop is among those with a saffron flag on display. The controversy began when the Endowment Department-controlled temple held two rounds of auction and allotted 82 spaces. Of them, six were allotted to Muslims and one was allotted to a trader from the Jain community. A member of the Dakshina Kannada and Udupi District Jatra Vyparastara Samanvaya Samiti said that eight Hindu traders, who were allotted stalls in the auction, in turn, had sub-let their stalls to Muslims to do business.
As published earlier, on 17 October Vishwa Hindu Parishad Dakshina Karnataka Pranta joint secretary Sharan Pumpwell and other VHP activists visited the stalls and fixed saffron flags on select stalls. They later gave a call for people to shop in the stalls which displayed saffron flags. The outfit, among other Hindutva groups in coastal Karnataka, had been campaigning for not allowing Muslim traders at temple fairs. Last year, hoardings had come up on some temple premises during fairs urging people not to buy from non-Hindu traders.
Following the demand for action by the samiti, the Mangaluru South Police, on October 18, suo motu registered a case under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code (Promoting enmity between groups on the ground of religion) against Pumpwell and other VHP activists. However, they challenged this in the Karnataka High Court the next day and got an interim stay on the FIR. K. Vinayananda, a representative of the temple management, speaking to the media had said people from different faiths follow the temple and they openly participate in different rituals. The temple had not made any distinction among traders either, who put up stalls during the Navaratri fair and during the annual temple fair.
