In a secular country like India all religions deserve their own space and adherents of different religions must maintain mutual respect. This was the view of the president of the Kutumba Suraksha Parishad (KSP), a body that had argued for the rights of Hindus to worship at the Mawjymbuin cave in Mawsynram.
Ranjan Borah, the KSP president, said this in relation to another matter, that of the recent incident where an Instagrammer had shouted “Jai Shree Ram” and other Hindu-related phrases in a church in Mawlynnong, which he filmed and uploaded online.
According to Borah, who was speaking today after a meeting was held to resolve the Mawjymbuin matter, everyone has the right to live, to worship and the right to express and think. “At the same time, India, being a secular country, everyone has to respect every faith, every religion, every caste and community. The church is not (a place to chant) Jai Shree Ram,” he told reporters.
According to him, respect should be mutual and not only one way. “So everyone has to respect what is there in the church and all churches have to respect what we have in the temples also,” Borah said.
Instagram personality Akash Sagar allegedly trespassed into the Church of Epiphany in Mawlynnong recently and then uploaded the videos on Facebook and Instagram where he chants various phrases from the pulpit. An FIR has been registered against him in connection with his activities.
