Swami Krushnaswarup of Swaminarayan Temple in Bhuj in Gujarat (Screengrab: YouTube)
Days after 66 girl students in Bhuj town of Kutch in Gujarat were allegedly made to strip to check if they were menstruating, a video showing a religious leader castigating menstruating women who cook food for their husbands went viral.
In the video, Swami Krushnaswarup of Swaminarayan Temple in Bhuj can be seen giving a sermon where he says that “menstruating women who cook food for their husbands will take birth as dogs in their next life while men consuming food prepared by women having periods will reborn as bullocks.”
The preacher is associated with the temple which runs the Shree Sahjanand Girls Institute (SSGI) in Bhuj where students were allegedly made to strip to check if they were menstruating. The principal of the school Rita Raninga (38), institute coordinator Anita Chauhan (49), girls’ hostel supervisor Ramila Hirani (29) and peon Naina Gorasia (40) were arrested on Monday after the police filed an FIR against them for the February 11 incident at the institute that caused public outrage.
“….It is certain that men will be born as bullocks in their next life if they consume food cooked by menstruating women. I don’t care if you do not like my views, but this is all written in our shastras (scriptures). If a menstruating woman cooks food for her husband, she will be definitely born as a female dog in her next life,” he said while delivering a sermon in Gujarati.
Krushnaswarup also warned men from consuming food prepared by menstruating women. Scolding women for being “careless” about their menstruation period, which he likened with “penance”, he can also be heard asking men to learn cooking. “Women do not realise that period of menstruation is like doing ‘tapasya’ (penance). This is written in our shastras. Even I do not like to tell you all these things, but I have to warn you. Men should learn cooking…It will help you,” he said.
The time and place of the video clip cannot be independently verified.
On February 13, a group of undergraduate students of SSGI and their parents approached the media and complained that the management of the institute ordered 68 of them to go out of a classroom, sit in a passage on the suspicion that students were violating the institute’s rules for women students during their menstrual period.
While two of the students said that they were menstruating, the authorities allegedly forced the remaining 66 to go to a washroom one after another and strip to ascertain if they were menstruating or not.
(Inputs from PTI)