The Jain community on Monday protested the Rajasthan High Court's ban on Santhara, which termed the practice as suicide. The protest took place in Andheri and a delegation of the community met the at Rajbhavan regarding the issue.
Over 3,000 Jains marched from Rajasthan Club House to Piramal Garden in Andheri. "We took out this rally to protest against the ban. The court should have called the people from the community and understood from them what Santhara is all about. The court should do a re-think on the issue. Tomorrow, they will term animal sacrifice as murder," said Arihant Rishiji, who lead the protest on behalf of all the Jain organisations of the area.
At Walkeshwar, Jains expressed a similar sentiment and gave a letter to the governor. In the letter, signatories demanded that the Centre file an appeal against the order to set things right. "Due to this judgment, there is resentment in the community and it feels there is religious interference," said Kanak Parmar, general secretary of Jain Shakti Foundation. A similar letter was given to the prime minister of India.
"If there is no action taken, we will resort to fasts and more protests will follow. The government has to give more thought to this issue, or else we will protest more," said Rishiji.
Similar protests were staged at Mira Road and also Madhya Pradesh.
