Temples urge devotees to dress appropriately

Mumbai: After the Pashchim Maharashtra Devasthan Samiti (PMDS)’s appeal to devotees to not wear short dresses when visiting the famous Mahalakshmi temple, now the Mahalakshmi Mumbai and Mumbadevi temple trustees have urged devotees ahead of the Navratri festival not to wear shorts, torn jeans, short skirts or any indecent clothes when visiting temples. Activists have reacted sharply to these diktats.

The Mahalakshmi trustee, R. Mehta, said, “We are welcoming  devotes from everywhere the only thing is we have appealed people to come decently dressed that’s it, and this is for both men as well as women.”

Supporting PMDS’s decision, the Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Raj Purohit who is on board of Mumbadevi temple said, “People should respect a temple’s pious environment, wearing torn jeans, short skirts and shorts are not part of Indian culture.” He added, “I urge everyone to come and seek blessings in decent clothes like  kurtas, even jeans and t-shirts are fine, but wearing shorts absolutely not acceptable.”

Raju Iyer, a trustee of a temple in Thane said, “I agree with the PMDS, not only women but men should also maintain the etiquette and wear decent attire to the sacred place.”

However, activist Trupti Desai who is not very pleased with the idea of dress code, said, “It is not fair to impose strict dress code on women. Asking devotees to follow dress code and making it mandatory for women is not at all acceptable. Wearing clothes is an individual’s choice.”