Right-wing Hindu activists on October 25 served a 15-day ultimatum to Catholic school in the central Indian state Madhya Pradesh state to install in the campus an idol of Saraswati, the goddess of know-ledge. A 30-member delega-tion of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal met Father Augustine Chittupara-mbil, manager of Christ Jyoti Senior Secondary School in Satna district headquarters, to make the demand through a memo-randum. The memora-ndum they gave the priest 15 days to comply with their demand or face protests in front of the school.
“The Hindu activists came to our school and wanted us to install an idol of goddess Saraswati in the campus,” Father Chittuparambil told. The radicals forced the priest to give in writing that he had received their memorandum that he accepted at the school’s main gate.
The Hindu activists left the place with a warning to come back in case the school failed to comply with their demand.
“They claim that the school was built at a place where the idol of goddess Saraswati had existed,” the priest explained.
He pointed out that the school was built 49 years ago and no one had made such a claim until now. The Syro-Malabar diocese of Satna manages the school. Satna town is some 455 km northeast of Bhopal, the state capital.