Backward Forum to protest regressive religious practices

The Karnataka Backward Class Awareness Forum today announced that they would be holding a 'massive protest' in Mysuru on January 15 against regressive religious practices, superstitions and demanding an anti-superstition bill.
Forum president K S Shivaram said the 'Yede Snana', a practice of devotees belonging to backward communities rolling over the 'prasadam' offered to the deity, was as regressive as 'Made Snana', where the devotees roll over leftovers of food on plantain leaves, he said.
He said such practices tend to reinforce caste discrimination and 'Varna' system to suppress the lower castes. The 'Made Snana' was most inhuman and such superstitious rituals should not be allowed in temples. The forum would also urge the Chief Minister to pass the anti-superstition bill, he told reporters here.

Shivaram asked the Pejawar Mutt chief Swami Viswesha Theertha to hold a 'Sahapankti bhojana' (inter-caste fellowship meal) if he was really concerned about Dalits and other backward communities.
The Supreme Court had on December 12, 2014, stayed an order of the Karnataka High Court which allowed 'Made Snana'. The Supreme Court yesterday refused to allow a plea for early hearing of the Karnataka government's petition against 'Made Snana' performed by people belonging to the Malekudiya community in Dakshina Kannada district.
A three-judge bench presided over by Chief Justice T S Thakur had listed the case to be taken up after winter vacations, Shivaram said.