Idol desecration amplified by social media messages, roils Secunderabad

Kummariguda in Secunderabad was roiling with excitement from morning on Monday after a resident on a morning walk discovered the grille of Goddess Muthyalamma temple open and heard loud sounds. “He raised an alarm and all the residents turned up and thrashed the person who vandalised the idol. The idol is covered with a sheet of brass. We don’t know if he came to vandalise or steal,” said Ramakrishna, a resident who stayed put near the temple as the news of desecration brought droves of people who frequently chanted ‘Jai Shri Ram’. Some young girls in the area held up placards about protection of temples and Dharma. A video on social media, purportedly showing the act of vandalism inside the temple, added to the frenzy as it was shared with polarising messages. This brought in more people from across the city who tried to gain entrance to the temple and see the damage for themselves.

The small temple, with fresh paint from the recent Bonalu festival, is below ground level and is a site of offering of festive food by the women to the Goddess Muthyalamma. “The temple is in the middle of the area and this locality where most of the people did pottery work has grown up around it,” informed Ramakrishna, who studied at the school.

The police had their task cut out on Monday as they fanned out and barricaded the four bylanes leading to the temple in an area that also has a Government school.

The street behind the temple leading to a masjid was blockaded and guarded by the police on Monday. “We don’t want to take chances. There have been thousands of people visiting the temple and sharing soundbites for videographers. Hopefully by tomorrow morning all this tamasha will end,” said a police official guarding the entrance of the street near Passport Office.

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