While the Uttar Pradesh Governor T V Rajeshwar condemned the vandalism resorted to by Bharatiya Janata Party activists at the Loreto Convent school on Sunday, he expressed equal displeasure over the "occult" act performed in the institution on September 6, that provoked the violence.
According to a source in the Governor House, Rajeshwar did not mince words in completely disapproving the school authorities bid to expose students to what he termed as an "occult act".
A delegation of senior representatives of Catholic institutions had called on the Governor seeking his intervention to ensure security for the Christian minority institutions in the light of the BJP attack. Led by Father Paul Rodrigues, secretary of the UP Catholic Educational Institutions Association and legislator Peter Fanthome, the official representative of the Anglo-Indian community in the state legislative assembly, the delegation included Loreto Sister superior Sister Tressia as well as school principal Sister Monica.
"The Governor counseled the school authorities to shun occult activities in the school premises," said the source. He was not convinced with the explanations given by the school authorities who repeatedly sought to dispel his impression about an "occult act".
He sought to describe it as a "special spiritual prayer to experience God".
Earlier, Sister Monica and Sister Tressia had themselves admitted that they invited a rickshaw puller turned "divine" person Nobo Kumar Mandal, all the way from West Bengal to show how he brings the soul of Lord Jesus Christ inside his body. "Now Jesus has entered inside my body, now I can bless you and heal you of all your ailments," he had told the gathering of about 300 students of the senior and middle-school on September 6.
While most of the students were awestruck by the performance and some even went up to him to take his "divine blessings" one or two students fainted as they found the whole exercise quite "horrifying".
No sooner that the matter hit the headlines in Lucknow, there was a public furore. The first one to take the plunge for apparently gaining political mileage out of the whole affair was the BJP. About 35-40 member of BJP's youth wing stormed the school premises on Sunday, ransacking property, smashing glass panes and intimidating the convent sisters, living alone on the campus.
Prompt action by the state police prevented them any major damage. A number of cops have since been posted on round the clock duty around the 134 - year institution that is located in the heart of Lucknow's most posh and VIP area.