An Indian Hindu nationalist organisation has launched a court docket petition to cease two lions named after a Hindu deity and a Sixteenth-century Muslim emperor from sharing a zoo enclosure.

Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a distinguished rightwing Hindu organisation, went to court docket within the state of West Bengal after reviews a lioness named Sita had been put with a lion referred to as Akbar.

Akbar was a Mughal emperor who prolonged Muslim rule over a lot of the Indian subcontinent, a time Hindu nationalist teams take into account to have been a interval of slavery.

“Sita cannot stay with the Mughal emperor Akbar,” the VHP official Anup Mondal mentioned on Sunday, suggesting it will offend spiritual sentiments within the Hindu-majority nation.

“Such an act amounts to blasphemy and is a direct assault on the religious belief of all Hindus,” the VHP mentioned , after having lodged a plea on Friday calling for a reputation change.

Critics say religious intolerance has been growing on the planet’s most populous nation for the reason that Hindu nationalist authorities of Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, got here to energy in 2014. General elections, prone to be held in April, are expected to secure Modi a third term in power.

Mondal mentioned the lion referred to as Akbar had beforehand been named after the Hindu deity Rama when he was within the neighbouring state of Tripura, which is managed by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata celebration.

But the lion’s identify was modified when he was dropped at West Bengal, which is managed by the opposition Trinamool Congress celebration. The VHP petition requires a ban on utilizing spiritual names for animals in zoos.

A West Bengal forest division official, Dipak Kumar Mandal, mentioned “the lion and the lioness are now kept separately”.

The case is scheduled for a listening to on 20 February.