People from other faiths have to sign a declaration when they visit Tirumala for darshan of Lord Venkateswara. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is going to visit the shrine on September 23 to participate in Garuda Seva. To preempt any controversy over declaration, the YSRCP has stirred a hornet’s nest by mooting withdrawal of this declaration rule at Tirumala.
Ruling party leaders, who constantly look for ways to impress the Chief Minister, began making statements against the declaration rule itself. Civil supplies minister Kodali Sri Venkateswara Rao alias Nani’s comments go a step further in this direction. He questioned who set this norm and with whose permission this rule was imposed. His impudent and insensitive comments have caused unrest and annoyance among the people.
It is learnt that the party leadership feels comments by party leaders against declaration will not have much effect and may also turn Hindus against the party. So, they are said to have decided to make some spiritualists and seers to make statements against the declaration at Tirumala to lend legitimacy to their own anti-declaration statements. As part of this, they are believed to have approached Visakhapatnam Sharada Peetam Seer Swamy Swaroopanandendra to speak out on the issue.
Swaraoopanandendra is considered to be very close to YS Jagan. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao too is his follower. There was talk that he had performed Rajasyamala Yagam for the sake of Jagan who sought his blessings several times. Making use of this closeness, the YSRCP is trying to use his services to dilute the declaration rule at Tirumala.
Anti-declaration statements
According to reliable information, YSRCP is going to make the seer issue a statement on the lines that it is wrong to seek declaration from people of other religions visiting Tirumala as it constitutes ‘discrimination between different human beings’ which is against the tenets of humanity.
The ruling party is of the view that statements like these from religious figures and seers will help them a lot in their efforts to scrap the age-old practice at the ancient temple.
Apart from Swaroopanandendra, the YSRCP is also making efforts to get other spiritual figures close to him to make comments and issue statements against the declaration norm. It is to be seen whether these seers will oblige the ruling party and fault the TTD for following the rule. In the process, it is likely that they will have to face opposition from Hindu organizations, devotees and the general public. A simple issue of declaration is now snowballing into a major controversy, further sullying the image of the ruling party. Let us see how it will wriggle out of this embarrassing situation.
