Following Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi’s allegations of forced two-finger virginity tests on class 6, class 7 students and daughters of Chidambaram Natarajar temple Dikshithars, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has issued notice to the Tamil Nadu government to inquire the matter and submit an action report in seven days.
In an exclusive interview with the Chennai edition of the Times of India, replying to a question on law and order in the State, Tamil Nadu Governor listed various instances that are not good as portrayed.
He said, “Look at what happened in 2022 at the Chidambaram Nataraja temple, which is not under the control of the Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment (HR and CE) Department. Out of vengeance, Government officials of the Social Welfare Department (SWD) lodged eight complaints of child marriage against the podhu dikshithars (archakas/priests) of the temple (who have been managing the affairs since ages) that they were marrying their children underage, whereas there were no such child marriages,”
“Parents were arrested and put behind bars. And the girls, sixth-seventh standard students, were forcibly taken to hospital from their homes and made to undergo ‘two-finger tests’, the virginity tests. Some of them even tried to commit suicide. I wrote a letter to the Chief Minister asking what this is. Now against the backdrop of all, that is happening. You want me to praise the Government. Is not that too much?” he added.
The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) wanted the Governor to sign paeans on the Government for the excellent management of temples. Governor Ravi said, “The reason they cited was that they have recovered 3,000 plus acres of encroached land. That’s a good one. We know that more than 50,000 acres of land have been encroached and recovery is too small. Look at what happened in 2022 at the Chidambaram Nataraja temple, which is not under the HR and CE.”
Pothu dikshithars are the hereditary priests and custodians of Sri Sabanayagar Temple, popularly known as Lord Nataraja Temple. On October 5 last year, based on a tip-off, the police arrested 46-year-old Deekshithar Somasekhar, the father of a 14-year-old girl whom he allegedly married to a 24-year-old man named Pasupathy. The police also arrested Pasupathy and his father, Ganapathy, who is also a Deekshithar.
All of them were booked under Section 9 (punishment for a male adult marrying a child) and the father under Section 10 (punishment for solemnising a child marriage) of the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act of 2006.
The Podhu Dikshithar families are hereditary priests of the Nataraja temple in Chidambaram. The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HRCE) Department of the State Government does not control the temple.
Generally, every married male member of the Dikshithar family gets a turn to perform the rituals at the temple and can serve as the chief priest for the day. Only married Dikshithars are entitled to perform the highest ritual, the Chadramoulisvarar Pooja. The married Dikshithars are also entitled to a share of the temple’s revenue.
Following Governor’s allegations, in a suo moto action, The NCPCR asked the state Chief Secretary V Irai Anbu and Director General of Police C Sylendra Babu to probe and file an action taken report within seven days to the issue of the notice. Chairperson of NCPCR Priyank Kanoongo, in his letter to the Tamil Nadu Government, said, “The commission come across a webpage report of Opindia dated May 4, citing that Governor Ravi, exposed the shocking truth about how minor girls were forced to undergo the two-finger test, also known as the virginity test, by the State administration to defame the podhu dikshithars, it has asked for the factual action taken report along with documents, including a copy of FIR lodged by the Social Welfare Department on complaints of child marriages, the status of action taken against the accused, the status regarding the arrest of parents and follow-up legal action, details about producing minor children before the medical officer for medical examination and any other relevant information concerning with the case to be submitted to the commission.
Kanoongo said, “Parents were arrested and put behind prisons; and the girls, class 6 and class 7 standard students were forcibly taken from home to the hospitals and made to undergo two-finger and virginity tests. Some of them tried to commit suicide, he (Governor) revealed and stated that he wrote a letter to the Chief Minister questioning the horrific ordeal,” said the chairperson adding that the commission took suo moto cognisance under section 13 (l) and (j) of the Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005.
The chairperson directed Chief Secretary Irai Anbu to inquire into the issue while ensuring not to disclose the identity of the victims and submit a factual action taken report within seven days to the commission. The chairperson also directed Anbu to submit copies of FIRs lodged by the social welfare department on child marriages, the status of action taken against the accused and parents and follow-up legal action and details on producing minor children before the medical officers for examinations and before the chief welfare committee.
The All Woman Police Station of Chidambaram told the media, “They produced the minor girls for medical tests, and a policewoman had accompanied them during the examination. They said, “The medical examinations were done as per the law”.
Two fingers are inserted into the vagina by a medical professional to “test the laxity of the vagina” and determine if the hymen is ruptured. The Supreme Court, in 2013, called the test an invasion of privacy, and the Health Ministry’s guidelines say that the two-finger examination should not be conducted.
On May 5, DGP Surendra Babu issued a statement denying the allegations of two-finger tests on the Deekshithars’ daughters. He said that the personnel of the Chidambaram All Women Police Station had arrested the accused including eight males and three females — only after collecting evidence of the child marriages.
“Out of four minor girls, only two were subjected to medical examinations after proper consultation with legal experts, and the medical examinations were done by female doctors. Those girls were not subjected to two-finger tests and the information that these girls tried to commit suicide is not true,” the DGP said.
Vice-president of BJP Tamil Nadu, Narayanan Tirupathy, slammed the State Government on the issue. He said that “it shows the anti-Hindu attitude of the DMK Government to somehow take possession of the Chidambaram Natarajar temple”. He raised several questions on who ordered such tests on minor children and why the children were subjected to cruelty; DMK has been trying to take over the temple under its control due to various reasons but in vain. The present HR and Minister of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department, PK Sekar Babu last March said the State Government has been taking legal steps to regain the 1,500-year-old Chidambaram Natarajar temple under its control again. In 2014, the Supreme Court freed the Natarajar temple from Government control. It quashed the Tamil Nadu Government’s February 2009 order appointing an Executive Officer to manage the affairs and properties of the Natarajar temple at Chidambaram.
A Bench of Justices B S Chauhan and S A Bobde, allowing a batch of appeals filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy and Podhu Dikshitars against the Madras High Court verdict upholding the GO, held that the Government could not take away the right of the Dikshitars to manage the temple. The Bench accepted the contention of the Dikshitars that they were a religious denomination as per Article 26 of the Constitution, “which guarantees the right to establish and maintain institutions for religious purposes.”
Governor Ravi, in the interview, said, “They wanted me to praise and endorse the Dravidian model of governance. First of all, there is no such model of governance. It is only a political slogan, a desperate bid to sustain an expired ideology, an ideology that does not relish the idea of ‘Oru Bharatham, One India.’ An ideology that underplays the national freedom movement, seeks to erase from history and memory, the hundreds and thousands of freedom fighters from Tamil Nadu, those who gave their lives and everything and instead glorifies those who collaborated with the British”.
He said, “It is an ideology that rabidly enforces linguistic apartheid on the whole of the nation. No other Indian language is allowed entry into Tamil Nadu. The interpretation of Indian secularism is devious and has been carried out by vested interest groups. When the Constitution was being drafted, nobody thought there was a need for secularism to be introduced in the Constitution. But one member K T Shah raised the issue. The entire constituent assembly unanimously said secularism is a European concept where it was born out of the hostility between the Church and the State.”
Governor Ravi said, “Our secularism is equal respect to all. So, to say that our Governors should not talk about religion, should not talk about dharma, is a wrong notion. And when we talk about equal respect for all, this is what Sanatana Dharma is. Why interpret it in terms of caste, or creed? These are mischievous distortions.”
The Governor listed several instances to disprove that ‘Tamil Nadu is heaven of peace’ regarding the law and order front. That was why he skipped them out in the text of the Governor’s address. He had also given reasons why he was not giving assent to bills.
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