VARANASI, INDIA, October 31, 2015: At source above is a rare first-hand report of the attack upon a Ganesha Visarjan procession in Varanasi on September 20 which received modest coverage in the media (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/varanasi/Kashi-tense-over-Ganesh-idol-immersion/articleshow/49057862.cms), and that blaming the procession organizers. At issue was a court order forbidding the immersion of the Deities in the Ganga, because of the pollution they might cause. Similar court orders restricting the dumping of sewage and industrial waste in the river are routinely ignored.
The account begins:
My wife and I were close witnesses to the happenings in Varanasi from 22 September to 23 October. We present what we experienced personally.
On 20th September we went to Srividya Math to meet Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati. Around 20-30 people from the Durgapuja Samitis had gone also to meet him. They were telling swamiji that the Allahabad High Court had issued an order prohibiting the visarjan of the murtis in the river Ganga. Last year it was authorized as an exception, but this year the order would be enforced.
Next day, a procession that was proceeding to Ganga for visarjan of a murti of Ganesh was stopped near Godowlia by the police, who asked that the visarjan should be done in a kund. People did not understand why the police had not stopped the procession in the pandal, and had allowed it to proceed to Godowlia. People were keen in having visarjan in Ganga, but the police let them stay there along the Ganesh murti for many hours (36 hours in total).
Next day we were shocked on reading in the newspaper headlines that the police had brutally lathi-charged swamiji and the other people there. Several people, including swamiji, had to be admitted in the hospital. At 91 or 2 am in the night, the police, after a brief order to leave the place, closed all the possible exits (why?) and started beating everyone, including swamiji and several Vedic students of tender age. The brutality of the charge can be seen in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHaQKMOmooo (also in other links)
This brutal action by the police provoked a deep indignation among the people of Banaras. The video of the lathi-charge was also instrumental, and clearly countered the police efforts to say that nothing had happened. The Ganesh murti was taken by the police and thrown in a haphazard way in Lakshmi Kund.
For the rest of the report, click “source” above.