The Indian Police Service Association on Friday criticised Uttar Pradesh IPS officer Surya Kumar Shukla, who was seen pledging to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya at an event at Lucknow University. The association said the officer’s action was “against the ethos of neutrality, fairness and uprightness that Indian Police Service stands for.”

A video of Shukla’s participating in the event went viral online.

“We Ram-devotees pledge during this event that the temple will be built as soon as possible,” Surya Kumar Shukla, a 1982 batch officer, and many others said at a programme organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Samagra Vichar Manch on January 28. The UP Home Department has asked Shukla for an explanation.

But Shukla claimed to the Hindustan Times that his words had been misinterpreted. “It was an intellectual gathering where people from Hindu and Muslim communities were present. The Muslims there favoured peaceful and early solution of the problem,” he said.

Shukla said the Muslim attendees had suggested that the Ram temple be built on the Ram Janmabhoomi site, and a mosque a little way away. He claimed that other attendees welcomed this suggestion.

The IPS officer took the pledge after an unidentified speaker exhorted the Hindu community to support the Ram temple agitation. “It is a shame that there is no Ram temple despite the fact that 100 crore Hindus live in India. It is also a matter of shame if you are waiting for the Supreme Court verdict,” the speaker said.