Goemkarponn Desk
SHIRGAON: Following a seemingly benign social media post about the environmental effects of the ongoing Devi Lairai festival in Shirgao, a police complaint has been filed against a 17-year-old girl in Mapusa due to the controversy the post caused.
Local authorities have intervened after the teenager’s criticism of the “homkhand” ritual during the Shirgao zatra on Instagram incited outrage among a segment of the majority community.
The young person expressed worry about the customary fire ritual’s effects on the environment and questioned its cultural and environmental ramifications in an Instagram post on Tuesday.
She wrote, pleading for careful measures to preserve cultural practices, saying, “I don’t know how you can call it a culture or a tradition and praise anybody while you cause harm to the environment in such a manner.”
Community members quickly took to the Mapusa Police Station late on Tuesday night in response to the post, demanding that the girl be taken into custody.
A formal complaint was subsequently filed against her under the IPC’s Section 295 (A) regarding the insulting of religious beliefs.
On Wednesday, though, the girl’s mother came forward to express her regret for her daughter’s post, stressing that the post was meant to draw attention to environmental issues rather than to offend religious feelings.
She apologized for the incident and begged for forgiveness on her daughter’s behalf in a video statement.
The mother went on to say that she had spoken with the complainants and convinced them not to press charges against her daughter by promising to issue a public apology.
A deal was eventually reached, and the mother was asked to apologize in public on behalf of her daughter.
The incident highlights the fine line that must be drawn in the digital age between religious sensitivities and freedom of expression, prompting concerns about the bounds of online discourse and the necessity of polite discourse on divisive subjects.
