Hindu group in India goes to court over lioness named after Hindu deity

NEW DELHI — A Hindu group in India has gone to court over the naming of a lioness in a zoo after the Hindu deity Sita, calling it blasphemous and an assault on the community's religious beliefs.

The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), or World Hindu Council, wants the court to order a name change.

It has also objected to a plan to keep the five-year-old lioness in the same wildlife park as a lion called Akbar — the name of a 16th century Moghul ruler — as part of an exchange programme among Indian zoos.

The two cats are currently housed in North Bengal Wildlife Animals Park.

VHP, which is linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party, said the beasts were given their names by the government of the West Bengal state, which is run by an opposition regional party.

VHP said in a statement that it received calls and complaints "from different corners of the country" over the names.

The complaint to the court, written by VHP's West Bengal secretary Lakshman Bansal, said the group observed "with deep anguish" the naming of the cat as Sita.

She is the consort of Lord Rama, and she is a sacred deity to all Hindus across the world, it added.

"Such act amounts to blasphemy and is a direct assault on the religious beliefs of all Hindus."

VHP spokesman Vinod Bansal threatened protests if officials refused to change the name and location of the lions.

"Sita and Akbar cannot be allowed to live together," Bansal said.

Akbar was a Mughal emperor who consolidated Muslim rule over much of the Indian sub-continent, a period that Hindu nationalist groups consider as the darkest phase for Hindus.

A senior official in the wildlife park said documents related to the case have been provided to the court and the park will abide by the court's decision.

Religious issues have long divided India's 1.42 billion people, which has a Hindu majority of about 80 per cent and the world's third-largest Muslim population.

In recent years, Modi's government and other leaders of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have changed several Muslim and British colonial names of roads, cities and public spaces in what they say is a campaign to revive ancient Indian history.

But sectarian disputes have flared and led to sporadic violence, including over religious sites.

Muslim advocates accuse BJP of discriminating against them and imposing laws interfering with their faith. Modi denies this.

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