The District Superintendent of Police (DSP) Palakkad has on Thursday issued a show-cause notice to the Alathur Deputy Superintendent of Police (Dy SP) R Manoj Kumar over a WhatsApp status update posted by him criticising President Draupadi Murmu’s visit to the Sabarimala temple on Wednesday.
The Palakkad DSP, Manoj Kumar, has asked for a detailed explanation from the Dy SP R Manoj Kumar for his WhatsApp status update posted by him criticising President Draupadi Murmu’s visit to the Sabarimala temple. He said the post was a violation of the code of conduct and that if the explanation is found to be unsatisfactory, departmental action will follow.
The Dy SP, in the late hours of Wednesday, posted the WhatsApp status alleging that President Murmu’s Sabarimala pilgrimage involved a breach of ritual protocol and that “High Court directions were flouted”. The DySP claimed that Murmu had flagrantly violated Sabarimala customs and that security personnel in uniform had abetted this breach of tradition.
The status, which began with court rulings such as “Do not stop anyone for personal reasons, do not give VIP treatment to anyone, and do not climb mountains in a vehicle,” sparked controversy and was deleted, but was still discussed on social media and visual media.
“Uniformed security personnel stepped on the 18th step, and despite various violations of tradition by the President of India and officials, the Sangh and the Congress did not conduct a nama japa yatra, nor did the mapras(Media) made any sound ,” the Dy SP said in the post.
“If this had been Pinarayi Vijayan or the ministers, what would have been the fuss, “ the police officer wrote. The status ends with the statement that the problem is not faith or tradition, but politics.
Meanwhile, DySP Manojkumar said that the message received on WhatsApp was inadvertently posted as a status. When colleagues noticed this, those were immediately removed. He also clarified that the problem was that some people had already taken screenshots and circulated them.
The BJP has come out against the DySP’s post criticising president Murmu’s Sabarimala shrine visit. BJP staged a protest march before the Alathur DySP office on Thursday against the DySP’s WhatsApp status.