The recent rumblings in the Kozhikode police department about paying monthly amounts to keep a temple running has drawn attention to Kerala's government's claim of the department being a secular institution. As the government has claimed time and again, is the Kerala Police really devoid of any religious markings or representation? Take a deeper look into the grassroot functioning of the police force, and several contradictions to this claim will start to unfold.
A case in point is the Bhadrakali Temple at Muthalakkulam in Kerala’s Kozhikode district. The administrative affairs of the temple, popularly known as the ‘police temple’, have been almost entirely run by the district police personnel for decades, unlike most other temples in Kerala which are run by the government devaswom boards. The funds for the expenses are collected monthly from all police personnel in the district, both city and rural. The practice has only recently created a row, with the Kerala Police Officers Association on March 26 flaying the running of the temple by the police, citing that “the police force consists of people of all faith and a call should be taken on the same after serious examination”.
The practice especially assumes significance while bringing into context the case of Riza Nahan, a Class 9 student hailing from Kuttiyadi of Kozhikode in Kerala, who had written a letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in February seeking permission to wear a hijab or headscarf with her Student Police Cadet uniform. In the letter, young Riza wrote in detail about how she had always dreamt of becoming a police officer and her joy at being selected for the SPC programme at her school.
However, she was majorly disappointed when her request to wear a headscarf with her uniform was rejected by the school as well as the Kerala High Court. One of the reasons cited was that the Kerala Police was a secular force, and no one was allowed to bear any religious symbol with their uniform. The Kerala government too eventually rejected her demand.
Muthalakkulam, meanwhile, has an entirely different story to tell. Here, it is the Kozhikode Commissioner of Police who acts as the president of the Bhadrakali Temple Committee, while the secretaries would be the Deputy or Assistant Commissioners. The committee has police personnel of various ranks as its members.
“There are also special police officers whom the temple priest can approach in case they need help to carry out any day-to-day affairs. There are around 2,300 police personnel under Kozhikode Rural and 1,400 under Kozhikode City. For several years, an amount of Rs 10 had to be contributed monthly by each of these cops towards temple expenses. Around 10 years ago, this amount was increased to Rs 20. This means that lakhs of rupees are collected in this manner every month,” a police personnel in Kozhikode told TNM.
“There are people within the force who do not agree with the police force running a temple. However, no one objects publicly because they think it is better not to create a fuss over it,” the police personnel added.
A temple committee meeting chaired by Kozhikode Commissioner of Police AV George (he retired on March 31) was convened on March 8, where it was decided that this year’s festival would be conducted from April 3.
The decades-long practice gained public attention recently after a Facebook post by CR Biju, General Secretary of the Kerala Police Officers Association. In the post dated March 26, Biju stated that the police involvement in the temple’s matters came from a colonial hangover, adding that the stakeholders should think the practice over carefully.
According to Biju's post, the temple existed from the time of the Zamorins (who ruled Kozhikode - the erstwhile Calicut) and was run by the army of the king. “Post Independence, it became part of the Union army. Since Home Affairs is a state subject in Independent India, such centres run by the army were also handed over to the state police forces. There are a number of other police compounds, temples and mosques that were transferred to the police in this manner. Presently, some police personnel use these places as per their faith (sic),” the post read.
According to a source, the temple and its association with the police snowballed into a controversy after the District Treasury in December 2021 excluded itself from the years-long practice of deducting money – for various purposes including the contribution towards the temple fund – from the monthly salary of the personnel. This meant the police personnel now needed to directly contribute the money to the fund. Many of them, however, refused to do so for the months of January and February, following which the Commissioner of Police issued a release directing all station and unit in-charges to collect Rs 20 (including the arrears of January and February) from the personnel.
The police chief’s circular issued on March 22, was met with criticism from some police personnel, who said that no more money should be contributed to the temple fund from their salaries. In his Facebook post, Biju too called for a serious reexamination of the practice of cops running a temple. "The force comprises people of different religious faiths and even atheists. But most of them confine their faith to their personal lives. The question of why this money is being collected or the temple is being run by the police has gained more relevance now," the post read.
Speaking to TNM, Biju said that the police force should be secular in the truest sense. “The Pattala Palli (Soldier’s Mosque) in Kozhikode, just a few kilometres away from the temple, also used to be run by the police in the past. But it was eventually handed over to the authorities concerned. The same should be done in the case of the temple as well. In the past, those who found jobs in the police force were mostly just from the state’s feudal families. But ever since the Kerala Public Service Commission took over the recruitment process, the police force has become diverse and inclusive of all religions. At this point, it is not fair to include the administration of a place of worship under a force that represents different faiths,” he said.
A police officer who spoke to TNM echoed Biju’s opinion. “The temple should be handed over to the Malabar Devaswom Board or some other similar entity. We are not asking anyone to put a stop to the temple’s functioning. We only want the police to be kept out of it," he said.
Biju also slammed the cops for taking part in the Punyam Poonkavanam project, a drive launched to clean up the surroundings of the famous Sabarimala Lord Ayyappa temple, located in the Pathanamthitta district of the state. The programme involves a daily and hour-long intensive cleaning exercise of the temple’s surroundings during the pilgrim season, which begins in November and ends in January. Personnel of the Kerala Police as well as the CRPF have been an official part of this cleaning drive.
“When the police participation in the project was questioned, it was defended (by those who launched it) with the claim that Sabarimala is a secular place where people of all faiths arrive for worship. What if cops get involved in similar drives for mosques and churches where people of all faiths are welcome as well,” Biju asked.
In the order rejecting Riza Nahan’s appeal to wear a headdress with her SPC uniform, the government had stated that request could not be considered. According to the petition filed by Nasheeda, the mother of Riza Nahan, on the behalf of the latter at the Kerala High Court, the girl had posted a photograph of her in the uniform in an SPC-associated Whatsapp group as directed by her instructor.
In the photograph, she wore the uniform with a scarf (hijab) and an additional full sleeve dress in accordance with her religious beliefs. The instructor, however, refused permission and stated that there cannot be any relaxation in the dress code. He also warned her against repeating such a request, said the petition, which was submitted in September 2021.
The High Court disposed of the petition with the direction that the petitioner was free to submit a representation before the government. Hence, Riza immediately approached the government in the same month, submitting in a petition that covering her head was an essential religious practice, which is her fundamental right as per the Constitution. In the petition, she also submitted that not allowing Muslim students who are part of the SPC to wear a hjab was equivalent to denying all of them the opportunity to join the SPC.
The government dismissed 'the petition with merit' in January this year. "After careful examination of the above facts, (the government) is fully satisfied that the demand of the complainant is not considerable. Also, if such a waiver is considered in the Student Police Cadet project, similar demands will be made on other similar forces, which will significantly affect the secularism of the state. Therefore, it is not appropriate to give any indication such that the religious symbols are highlighted in the uniform under the Student Police Cadet project,” the order said.