The Bhoomi Puja of a Hanuman temple was performed on Anjjanadri hill near Andhra Pradesh’s Tirumala on Wednesday.
Ten months after an expert committee of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) announced that Tirumala is the birthplace of the deity, a group of priests performed puja for building the Sri Anjanayaswamy temple.
In April last year, a committee constituted by TTD, which manages the affairs of Sri Venkateswara temple atop Tirumala, had announced that Japali Theertham near Akasha Ganga waterfall is the birthplace of Lord Hanuman.
The TTD committee had stated that they established the fact that Tirumala is the birthplace of Hanuman after four months of intensive research.
Bhoomi Puja was performed a day after the Andhra Pradesh High Court directed the TTD not to take up any kind of construction works including building of temple on Anjanadri hill.
The court had directed TTD and Principal Secretary, Endowments to file counter affidavits with all details pertaining to the proposed constructions.
The high court was dealing with a petition filed by Agraharam Raghavendra and two others challenging proposed construction being taken by the TTD. They argued that Anjanadri is a part of seven hills of Tirumala and building a temple there is against the Puranas.
The court was told that according to the Puranas, human beings are not allowed to consecrate any idols anywhere on seven hills. The petitioners also argued that there is no scientific evidence or mention in the Puranas to support the claim of TTD that Anjanadri hill is the birthplace of Hanuman.
The world’s richest Hindu shrine managed by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) saw offerings to the tune of Rs 25.7 lakh pour in on Monday, when its doors were opened for the devotees, about 80 days after they were shut in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The first day saw around 6,000 devotees, comprising TTD employees and their family members, lining up for a darshan of the presiding deity. TTD has earmarked the first three days for employees and their families, in a kind of test run before the general public are allowed inside the premises from June 11.
A temple official, on condition of anonymity, said that the cash accruals through hundi offerings made by the devotees, comprising TTD employees and their families, were counted on Tuesday and found to total a little over Rs 25 lakh.
With the temple getting closed on account of the nationwide lockdown, the subsequent lack of pilgrim footfall and donations had resulted in a cash crunch at the TTD. Prior to the lockdown, the temple, located in Andhra Pradesh, used to attract around 60,000 pilgrims on an average per day.
The TTD has decided to limit the entry to 6,000 devotees per day in order to ensure compliance with the Covid-19 protocols of physical distancing.
Jagan is starting his foot march (Padayatra) from this Monday. Just 2 days before starting his padayatra, today, he visited Tirumala. He came to Tirumala in a traditional Hindu dress along with his close aides. All was well until TTD superintendent came with the forms of declaration to be signed, but it is then Jagan sprang surprise as he just ignored and moved on. Full details are as below.
In 1990, a government order was released (G.O. No. 311). (GO MS No. 311 of AP Revenue Endowments-1). As per this, – “It is now a mandatory rule for all those belonging to various faiths other than Hinduism
to sign a declaration form before entering the hill temple stating that they have faith in the presiding deity.” In line with this G.O.311, TTD’s act number 136 was incorporated in TTD rules. According to this rule, the people belonging to other religions must sign the formal declaration for Tirumala darshan. Even though TTD can not identify all non-Hindus visiting Tirumala and ask them to sign the declaration, TTD made it mandatory for the VIPs to sign the declaration.
When Sonia Gandhi visited TTD way back, she had signed the declaration form. But Jagan never signed the form though he is a christian. And this is not the first time. In 2012, after floating YSRCP, he visited Tirumala along with Bhumana Karunakara Reddy and denied to sign the form when TTD superintendent asked him to do so. Bhumana was former TTD chairman and he also did not insist Jagan to sign that time. Fast forward to 2017, again the same scene repeated. But this time TTD officials did not force him to sign. They just came and showed the forms. Jagan and co just ignored the forms and moved on. This triggered sort of controversy yet again. But immedeiately after this episode, Bhumana Karunakara Reddy gave statement that Jagan is staunch follwer of Hinduism.
Well, there could different repercussions for this episode. In fact, technically there is a catch here. Many people who convert to christianity follow that religion but they don’t bother to change the name of religion in their education or other certificates. That means, as per records they are still Hindus. Even while filing the nomination form (Form 2A of election commission) for contesting as Member of parliament or Member of Legislative Assembly (Form 2B of election commission) one need not reveal his or her religion or caste unless they are contesting in a reserved constituency (for Scheduled caste or Scheduled tribes) in elections. So, nobody knows which religion Jagan is claiming in his certificates and other official records- Hindu or Christian. Of course, his family follows protestant christian faith and that is known to all. Having one religion in certificate and following another is also not a crime as per supreme court verdicts as long as he is not receiving any benefit from the government because of that religion. So, If as per the certificates , Jagan is a Hindu, he need not sign TTD declaration. But if he is Christian as per records, he MUST have signed the declaration and showed his respect for the norms and government orders.
Forget about legal repercussions for some time, let’s see what kind of questions Jagan will have to face from people in this regard. To be frank, Jagan could attract most of the minority votes in 2014 – mainly because this vote bank shifted from Congress party to YSRCP as Congress lost its existence in AP. Moreover, Muslims mostly stay away from BJP and its alliance parties and they had no option other than YSRCP in 2014 in AP. But Jagan, after 2014 elections, came to the conclusion that his ‘Christian’ tag made Hindus kept him at bay and started various attempts to attract Hindus (and their votes). His recent meet with Chinna Jeeyar Swamy seeking his blessings is one such attempt. He also met Swarupananda Swamy and sought his blessings. His close associates are talking of doing ‘Yagas and Yagnas’, of late. And, Jagan today went for Tirumala Darshan. All of this is fine, but when the TTD superintendent came with those declaration forms to be signed, he simply ignored and moved on. If he is a Hindu as per records, in which case he need not sign, he can openly declare his faith to the people. But, as everyone knows, he can not do that. And if he is christian by faith as per records too, there is nothing wrong in that as anybody can practice any religion as per constitution but he must have signed the forms at TTD and show his respect for the norms. But, for some reason, he did not do that too.
Jagan seems to be somehow losing his strong base in minorities by giving unconditional support to Modi and BJP at times and at the same time he is not gaining the new base in majorities by doing this kind of silly mistakes. One thing that he, or for that matter any political leader needs to understand is this – they can not simply pretend on something and gain political advantage. People are not that gullible. Don’t take people for granted !!!
The holy temple town of Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh was visited by YSR Congress Party President, Mr. YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Saturday morning.
Before embarking on a 3,000 km long “Praja Sankalpa Yatra”, Jagan had travelled to Tirupati, to seek blessings. The main aim of the padayatra would be to cover 13 districts and in a duration of six months. The padayatra is scheduled to take off from November 6.
The ‘failures of the Chandrababu Naidu government’ and stress on the need for Special Category Status (SCS) for Andhra would be highlighted by the party, which ultimately aims at unseating the ruling TDP government.
Meanwhile, the TDP lawmakers have referred the padayatra as a “Yatra for power” as Jagan has all set his eyes on the Chief Minister’s seat. But, the YSRCP refuted the claims and said that it is a Yatra to highlight people’s problems.
The YSRCP has also decided to boycott the winter session of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly, which will start in the second week on November. Under Schedule 10 of the Constitution – also known as the anti-defection law, the legislators be disqualified, demanded the YSRCP.
The Assembly Speaker and the President of India have been approached by the party, demanding that they take cognizance of the situation. A letter to the President of India was written by Jaganmohan Reddy, on October 26, seeking his intervention into the matter of ‘encouraged defections from his party to the ruling TDP’.
Chandrababu Naidu was accused by Jagan for his ‘unethical and unconstitutional practice of masterminding defections’, in the letter.
Vijayawada: A tough fight is set to be on the cards for the posts of the prestigious Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Board. As the term of the present TTD Board expires today, April 26, the ruling TDP leaders are lobbying for the posts. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu who is set to leave for US tour on May 3, is likely to fill the posts before his departure.
Two MPs, Rayapati Sambasiva Rao from Narasaraopet in Guntur district and Maganti Murali Mohan from Rajamahendravaram in East Godavari district are said to be fighting for the TTD Board chairman post. While Rayapati has been trying unsuccessfully for the post for over a decade, Murali Mohan jumped into the fray after his victory in the 2014 elections. Interestingly, present chairman Chadalavada Krishna Murthy is also trying his luck for another term, but his chances are said to be less. Sources say that Rayapati is mounting heavy pressure on the Chief Minister to name him for the Board. Murali Mohan, who is close to the Chief Minister for decades, is also putting his pressure for the post.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister is said to be planning to accommodate the dissident legislators and leaders who could not make it to the Cabinet in the recent rejig. He is said to have made up his mind to nominate at least two YSR Congress MLAs who have defected to the party and could not get the place in the Cabinet. Besides, the Chief Minister is also planning to nominate dissident leaders in the TDP, besides one post for the Telangana TDP leaders. It is also said that Chandrababu Naidu is in favour of continuing the membership of at least two of the present Board. Popular director K Raghavendra Rao and Infosis founder Sudha are said to be the most favoured members to be continued for another term.
This time, Chandrababu Naidu wants to give lions share in the TTD Board to the leaders from the Rayalaseema region, where he is planning to beat Opposition leader Y S Jaganmohan Reddy in the next round of election. Besides inclusion of N Amaranath Reddy and C Adinarayana Reddy into the Cabinet, the Chief Minister wants to have greater representation for the leaders from this region to make inroads into the Jaganmohan Reddy’s base.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devastanams (TTD) abandoned the Controversial project ‘ Ananda Nilayam- Ananta Swarnamayam’. The project aimed at covering entire sanctum sactorum of temple with gold. The massive project was launched in March 2009, when Adikesavulu Naidu was the chairman of TTD.
TTD executive officer D Sambasivarao said in the dial-your-EO program that the project was shelved following Supreme Court directive.
For the project, the TTD has so far received 145 kg gold in addition to Rs 11 crore cahs from devotees. He said the TTD had written letter to the donors about the decision to abandon the project of gold plating temple.
As many as 127 devotees donated about 145 kg of gold for the project including Mukesh Ambani (1 kg), Yeddyurappa (1 kg) and Lata Mangeshkar (1 kg). Several devotees donated as much as Rs 11 crore for the project, including Rs 6 crore by liquor baron Vijay Mallya and Rs 1 crore by Mukesh Ambani.
The project landed in controversy with many objecting the gold plating of an archeaologically significant structure and they invoked the archeaological survey of India as well. They feared that the wall had ancinet inscriptions in Telugu, Kannada and Tamil, and would get erased or damaged if gold plating was done.
The case finally reached the Supreme Court which directed the TTD to scrap the project in which six doors out of 14 had already been gold plated.
