India: Hindu Mahasabha perform 'mind cleansing' ritual to knock sense into protesting authors

The Times of India

Now, ‘buddhi shuddhi’ for protesting authors

TNN | Oct 19, 2015, 03.48 AM IST

The yagya was allegedly performed in order to knowck some sense into the protesting authors. (Representative image)
ALIGARH: The Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha on Sunday morning performed a 'Buddhi Shuddhi' (cleansing the mind) yagya, in a bid to "knock sense" into winners of the prestigious Sahitya Akademi award who have been giving back honours to protest the growing atmosphere of intolerance in the country.

"Buddhi Shuddhi yagya was conducted so that divine powers restore some sense to our so-called intellectuals who are returning awards. This gesture is bringing shame upon the whole nation. They are guilty of desh droh (being traitors)," said national secretary Pooja Shakun Pandey of the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha.

She said the yagya was meant to ensure that acts that threaten national integration do not happen with impunity.

Over 40 winners of the Sahitya Akademi award have so far returned their awards, protesting the murdes of rationalist Narendra Dabolkar in Maharashtra and Kannada writer MM Kalburgi, and the intolerance that led to the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri by a mob that suspected he had eaten beef and stored the meat in his refrigerator.