Akhilesh Yadav, the leader of the Samajwadi Party demanded the suspension of the police official who instructed the deployment of police officers dressed as 'priests' at the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, calling it 'condemnable'.
Varanasi Police Commissioner Mohit Agarwal had deployed several police officers in the temple in priests' attire.
The male policemen were asked to wear dhoti-kurta and the female policemen were asked to wear salwar kurta.
Questioning this system, Yadav in a post on X said, "According to which 'police manual' is it correct for policemen to be dressed as priests? Those who give such orders should be suspended. If tomorrow any 'thag' (fraudster) takes advantage of this and loots the innocent public, then what will the UP government and administration answer? Condemnable!".
He also posted a 35-second video of a news report on his handle.
What did the police officer say?
Agarwal told the media that the people who travel from distant locations to pay their respects have a high regard for the priests, and they hey often got hurt if they are pushed forward by the uniformed policemen.
"The duty in temple is different from other place as police have to manage different type of crowd here. The crowd here is not for creating law and order problem. The police is here to ensure easy darshan to people and help and guide them," Agarwal said.
"The devotees get hurt if being pushed by policemen, if same thing is done by priests they take it in a positive way. Following no touch policy, policemen are being deployed in priests attire," he added.
