UP teacher's song asking students to focus on studies and not Kanwar yatra irks saffron groups, complaint filed

The teacher, identified as one Rajnish Gangwar said that there was nothing against Hinduism in the prayer and that he simply asked the students to focus on their studies.

Lucknow: A prayer sung before the students advising them to focus on their studies rather than undertaking ‘kanwar yatra’ (an annual pilgrimage in the Hindu month of Shravana during which the devotees carry sacred water from Ganga in pitchers and travel to the temples of Lord Shiva to offer the same there) landed a teacher in trouble when he was booked by the police following a complaint by a saffron outfit in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly town.

‘’Tum kanwar lene mat jana….Gyan ka deep jalana’’ (you don’t undertake kanwar yatra…you lighten the lamp of knowledge), was the prayer that landed the teacher, identified as Rajnish Gangwar, who was a teacher at a college at Baheri in the district, in trouble.

Saffron outfits took strong exception to the prayer after a video containing the same went viral on social media and they lodged a complaint with the police stating that it was against Hinduism.

Gangwar said that there was nothing against Hinduism in the prayer and that he simply asked the students to focus on their studies.

District education officials said that they had sought an explanation from the concerned teacher and that it was not the intention of the teacher to demean any religion.

‘’It’s an old video and someone has deliberately made it viral to make it a big issue,’’ said a district education official in Bareilly on Tuesday.

Police said that a case was registered in this regard and the matter was being investigated.

The ‘kanwar yatra’ was currently going in different parts of Uttar Pradesh. Millions of ‘kanwarias’ were taking part in this annual pilgrimage.