Hyderabad:
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. T. Rama Rao of the Telugu Desam party has won his battle against the gods and their creators. The Kanchi Shankaracharya echoing the opinion of the entire Brahmin community of India had issued a statement opposing NTR’s order to the famed Tirupati temple, housing India’s richest god, Venkateswara, to deposit its vast funds in government treasury.
The executive of the temple trust had earlier met at Madras and had the audacity to defy the government order. The Kanchi Acharya, who normally speaks for the entirety of Brahmins of India, made a statement which by implication meant that the gods cannot serve the poor but only the Brahmins. He said, “No doubt food and water should be provided for the poor. But it is a secular purpose and the expenditure thereon should be met by the government from its own funds and not from the temple funds.” (Hindu Feb. 27). Every “national daily” of India had prominently featured this statement thereby implying that Hindus of India do not like any government utilise the Tirupati temple funds or any temple money to provide water and food for the poor. They are right, because under the Hindu religion there is no connection between its gods and the poor.
Fully sensing this danger from the “gods of earth”, NTR appointed some of his party legislators on the Tirupati temple board which promptly reversed the executive’s earlier decision. But the board did not give a blank cheque. It put several conditions to release the funds. E. V. Chinniah, editor of the Prajabhandu, Nellore, and a noted Dalit leader of AP in an editorial (Feb. 15) has called upon NTR to “Rob the gods to feed the poor”. Our gods are very wealthy. They have crores of rupees in their coffers in addition to precious jewellery worth crores on their stony bodies. They marry their wives once in every year in a very luxurious way involving millions of rupees. The Tirupati temple has over Rs. 300 crores lying idle in its bank accounts solely enjoyed by its corrupt priests. The example set by AP govt. should be followed by other States. Dalits and other persecuted sections must mount pressure on the govt to “rob the Gods to feed the poor” as E. V. Chinniah put it.
