Gorakhpur: A senior police officer in eastern Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur town landed into a controversy after photos of him in uniform kneeling down before chief minister Yogi Adityanath and seeking his blessings went viral on social media Friday.
Sources said, the police officer, Praveen Singh reached Gorakhdham Math in uniform and knelt down before Yogi Adityanath and also the head priest of the influential Gorakhnath temple in the town, on the occasion of Guru Purnima.
Later, Yogi blessed Praveen and put ‘tilak’ on his forehead.
The matter came to the fore after a series of photographs on Facebook, shared by Praveen himself, went viral.
In one photograph, the officer can be seen kneeling down before the CM and the latter applying tilak on Praveen’s forehead. In the second, he can be seen applying tilak on Adityanath’s forehead. A third photograph shows the police officer garlanding the Chief Minister.
However, in his Facebook post, the police officer said he was seeking the blessings of Yogi, on the occasion of Guru Purnima, not in the chief minister’s capacity but as the head of the Gorakhnath temple.
The officer’s Facebook check-in and photos were accompanied by a “feeling blessed” status and emoticon.
But the officer’s act has triggered a debate on social media, with many asking if he should have done this in uniform.
However, many others on Facebook and Twitter said there is nothing wrong with this, pointing out that other police officers from different faiths also undertake religious activities while in uniform and that the officer could not have changed his clothes just for a five-minute interaction with Yogi Adityanath.
Agencies