TIRUNELVELE: A fierce controversy is raging about the Prime Minister’s visit to Sri Subramania Swany Temple at Tiruchendeurin Chidambaranar district (Tamil Nadu) on October 4.
The controversy is about the way he entered its sanctum sanctorum in the company of his wife, security men and the media personnel.
Mr. Rajiv Gandhi visited the temple after his visits to the Muslim dominated Kayalpattinam and the Catholic village of Veerapandianpattanam.
Those who drew up Mr. Gandhi’s tour program took extra care to see that Prime Minister paid visits to the places of worship of all the three major religious groups of the area — Hindus, Christians and Muslims.
Ironically, the visit misfired in the case of the temple. The widespread indignation expressed by some of the ardent devotees has led to the formation of an all-party committee. The committee wants action to be taken against those responsible for what they call desecration of the temple.
The great pilgrim center at Tiruchendur, which is regarded as the highest among the six temples of Lord Muruga, is known for age old traditions one of which is that the male devotees should enter the santum sanctorium without any clothes on the upper part of the body. Also every devotee must be bare-foot.
Mr. Rajiv Gandhi entered the temple with his long “jipa” on. The officers and security men though they were not in their full attire, entered the temple with whatever they had on their feet.
Old timers do not recall any instance of the presiding deity and the precincts around being photographed. When the Prime Minister entered the temple scores of photographers of whatever took their fancy.
Against this “desecration” of the temple, a public meeting was organized at Tiruchendur on October 12. At the meeting an all-party committee was formed with former Janata leader, Mr. Oti Sivaraj, as chairman. The other members are Dr. H. Harikrishnan, president of the local unit of the Hindu Temple Protection Committee, Mr, S, Ramachandra Iyer, a Lok Dal activist, Mr. M. Ramakrishnan district secretary of the Hindu Desam and Mr. S.P. Velupillai of Kamaraj Congress.
The committee has decided to ask the Government to identify the officials who were responsible for the “desecration” and initiate action against them. The committee will decide about its future course of action on the basis of the Government’s response.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 4, 1988
