Babri Masjid Demolition Reenactment: Karnataka Cops Book RSS Man

Students Recreating Barbi Masjid Demolition in Karnataka. 

Photo: Screenshot. 

A day after the controversial reenactment of the Babri Masjid demolition in a Karnataka school, police have registered an FIR against the management of the RSS-run school.

Videos of a reenactment, where the students of Sri Rama Vidyakendra High School in Kalladka in Dakshin Kannada district can be seen tearing down a large poster of Babri Masjid, had caused controversy.

The case has been registered under Indian Penal Code Sections 295A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and 298 (Uttering, words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person).

The FIR was registered based on a complaint by Aboobacker Siddique, a PFI activist and a local resident.

RSS Ideologue Named in FIR

Seventy-three-year-old Dr Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat, the RSS in-charge for Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

The FIR names Kalladka Prabhakar, an RSS ideologue in the region and the president of the Puttur Vivekananda Vidyarvaka Sangamya that runs the school.

Talking to The Quint on Monday, 16 December, Prabhakar said he was proud of those who conducted the re-enactment and promised that more such events would be held in other schools as well.

“I want to make something clear, it is not Babri Masjid, but it was a structure. The day the structure was brought down was a historic day and it was important to tell our younger generation about it.”

Prabhakar Bhat told The Quint on Monday

The Controversial Event

The play was held on Sunday, 15 December, at Sri Rama Vidyakendra High School in Dakshina Kannada district’s Kalladka. Hundreds of students of classes 11 and 12 re-enacted the events leading to demolition of Babri Majid with a running commentary in the background.

The event was also attended by Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi and Union Minister DV Sadananda Gowda.

Towards the end of the play, on the narrator’s cue, students are seen running towards the poster of Babri Masjid. They tear and stomp on the poster as the narrator says, “With whatever they could find, they begin the demolition of Babri Masjid. They, devotees of Hanuman, high on emotions, thus bring down the Babri Masjid.”