Akhilesh Yadav Slams Cops in Priests Attire At Kashi Vishwanath, Says 'Those Ordered This Should Be Suspended'

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav. (PTI file photo)

On the orders of Varanasi Police Commissioner Mohit Agarwal, male and female police officers have been deployed at the temple dressed up in traditional attire

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday condemned Uttar Pradesh police’s new order for cops to dress up as priests during deployment at Varanasi’s Kashi Vishwanath Temple.

Criticising the new system on social media, Yadav questioned why police officers were dressed as priests, and called for those who gave such orders to be suspended.

The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister also expressed concern that fraudsters could take advantage of this system and cause harm to innocent people. He also posted a video of a news report to support his argument.

Yadav’s reaction came after on the orders of Varanasi Police Commissioner Mohit Agarwal, male and female police officers have been deployed at the temple dressed up in traditional attire.

The male officers are wearing dhoti-kurta, while the female officers are wearing salwar kurta.

Agarwal, on the other hand, explained that police officers dressed as priests to manage the crowd at the temple.

The top cop argued that the devotees who come from faraway places to worship have great respect for the priests. If they are pushed by police officers, they tend to get hurt.

He added that priests usually take such actions positively. Therefore, to avoid hurting the devotees and following a no-touch policy, the police officers are being deployed in priests’ attire to help and guide the devotees.

“The duty in the temple is different from another place as police have to manage different types of crowds here. The crowd here is not for creating law and order problems. The police are here to ensure easy darshan to people and help and guide them,” Agarwal was quoted as saying by PTI.