LUCKNOW: Taking cognisance of an incident in Etawah where some “upper caste” men allegedly assaulted a kathavachak (religious storyteller) and his associate from the Yadav community and tonsured their heads, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a notice to the Etawah district police, directing the authorities to submit an Action Taken Report (ATR).The development comes a day after a video of the assault surfaced on social media and went viral. Following the incident, district police arrested four persons accused of the act and sent them to jail after registering an FIR in the matter.The accused were identified as Nikki Awasthi (30), Pratham Dubey (24), Ashish Tiwari (21), and Uttam Awasthi (19), all belonging to the Brahmin community.According to police sources, the incident took place at Dadarpur village in Etawah district on Saturday after some villagers objected to kathavachak Mukut Munni identifying himself as a Brahmin.The NHRC sought the ATR from Etawah Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) on the basis of a complaint filed by a Bhopal-based organisation — Dr Ambedkar Jankalyan Samiti — which alleged that the religious speaker and his associate, who belong to a backward class, were assaulted, had their heads tonsured, were compelled to rub their noses at the feet of a woman, and had their instruments damaged.“The allegations made in the complaint prima facie seem to be a serious violation of human rights of the victims,” the Commission observed in its notice.Mukut Munni said the incident occurred after he disclosed his caste to the villagers.However, in a press statement, the police said that the social media team at police headquarters received an X post on Monday evening carrying a video showing the tonsuring of a kathavachak. Taking cognisance of the post, it was forwarded to the Etawah district police authorities for necessary action.Etawah SSP Brijesh Kumar Srivastava said, “A video of villagers misbehaving with two individuals and cutting their hair against their will had surfaced. The accused were identified with the help of the video.”Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav termed the incident an attack on PDA (Pichhde, Dalit, and Alpsankhyak) and felicitated the two men at the party office in Lucknow on Tuesday.Claiming it to be an attack on PDA, Akhilesh said members of the PDA community were being intimidated under the current dispensation. “If Bhagwat Katha is for everyone to listen to, then everyone can recite it as well. Bhagwat Katha is related to Lord Krishna, and if his true followers are stopped from reciting it, we will not tolerate this disrespect,” he said.The SP chief further alleged that some people from upper castes wanted to maintain a monopoly over religious recitations. “If these people have hostility towards PDA, then they should stop taking donations from the community,” he added.Earlier in the day, Uttar Pradesh Tourism Minister Jaiveer Singh said unnecessary hype should not be created around the incident, as the accused had already been arrested.“Caste has no privilege over merit and efficiency. One can do anything based on their ability. The incident is unfortunate. An FIR has been registered and the accused have been arrested. There is no need to give this incident a political turn, as no injustice will be done to anyone under this government,” the minister said.
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