Government officials forced their way on the Kanakasabhai in Chidambaram Nataraja temple to satisfy their ego. Dikshitars, hereditary custodians of the temple had announced that the platform will not be accessible to devotees for four days due to the ongoing festivities and as a crown control measure. On the last day of this restriction, HRCE officials forced their way to the platform and the janeu of a Dikshitar performing puja was reportedly cut off in the process. Devotees and activists have condemned the high-handedness of the government simply to satisfy the ego of some anti-Hindu anti-Brahmin people.
Highly Atrocious pic.twitter.com/t9zOVvHWh1
— Tinku Venkatesh | ಟಿಂಕು ವೆಂಕಟೇಶ್ (@tweets_tinku) June 27, 2023
The Aani Thriumanjanam festival in the Chidambaram Nataraja temple is a 10-day pompous annual affair. It is believed to have been initiated by Maharishi Patanjali. This year’s Aani Thirumanjanam festival began on June 17 and lasted till June 27. As a part of the festivities, many rituals were performed. Owing to this, Dikshitars, traditional custodians and pujaris of the temple, made an announcement that the Kanakasabhai, a small raised platform in front of the garbagriha will be inaccessible to the devotees from June 24 to 27.
This restriction is followed every year to conduct the rituals without any obstacles and is a part of crowd control measures as the most number of devotees throng the temple on the day of Thirumanjanam. In Covid-19 times the same decision was taken to follow social distance norms suggested by the government. This was misconstrued as Dikshitars not allowing access to devotees and the DMK government passed a GO to force Dikshitars to allow devotees to access the platform.
Similar disinformation was spread in the last week and the 4-day restriction was spread as a permanent ban by media and vested interests. As usual, the HRCE department egged on by Dravidianists entered the foray to force their way into the temple affairs. Thillai Kaliamman temple Executive Officer went to the Nataraja temple to remove the notice board announcing the restriction initially. She was rightly stopped by the Dikshitars who said that they made the announcement only after getting Cuddalore Joint Commissioner’s permission.
As it turned out to be bad optics for Dravidianists, EO went with the police force to forcibly remove the board the next day. It is to be noted that Dikshitars explained patiently that the restriction was only for 4 days till the festivities were over and that the EO had no authority to force her command. Despite this, in what the Indian Express describes as ‘high drama’ the EO brought more police force to climb on Kanakasabhai in the evening of June 27, the last day of the restriction. Devotees would be able to use the platform for darshan from the next day as usual, but it wouldn’t have satisfied the ego of the vested interests.
It should be noted how HRCE has placed Saranya, a woman, as the EO of Thillai Kali temple to make it look like an all-male Dikshitar lobby harassing a lone woman officer whenever she forces her way. Chandrasekhar, the lawyer representing Dikshitars has said that they fear even going to the police station to file complaints as they have no trust in the state police after the recent episode. He addressed the media to reveal the absolute violation of Hindu rights and played the video of how deceptively and by force HRCE officials and cops acted.
@CMOTamilnadu @mkstalin @PKSekarbabu @Udhaystalin
— Dhivakar🇮🇳 🚩 திவாகர் 🚩🇮🇳 (@Dhivaka40208011) June 27, 2023
* தீட்சிதர்களை கீழே தள்ளி வஸ்திரம், அவர்கள் பூணூல் அறுந்து விழும் அளவுக்கு அங்கு என்ன கொலை நடந்ததா ?
*நேரில் கம்பளைண்ட் கொடுக்க பயந்து ரெஜிஸ்டர் தபாலில் அனுப்ப வேண்டிய அளவில் உள்ளது சட்டம் ஒழுங்கு காக்க வேண்டிய துறை. ஏன் சார்? pic.twitter.com/2Csldsqlnq
He said, “The official said ‘We will break the door if necessary to open the door using police force’. I asked ‘Why do you want to do that madam when devotees will be allowed from tomorrow morning and it is (restriction) will be there for only one more day?’. She said, ‘I don’t know about that. We have issued the G.O. We have to implement it’”.
“There are many orders which are not followed/implemented for which the court admonishes government officials every day. Why are they so eager to implement a GO when it comes to Dikshitars? Why do they abuse power like this? No one except those performing puja is allowed during this time. Yet just to show that they made some people climb the platform, two female officers arrived with a police force and entered by force violating the customs.”
The lawyer alleges that they deceptively used another entrance to fool everyone and climb the platform by deceit and pushed a Dikshitar present there. “Can such violation happen in any place of worship? To satisfy whom are they doing this? The constitution guarantees that rituals performed in any religion cannot be obstructed. This is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution. That right has now been trampled in Chidambaram. The Supreme Court has stressed the fact that as a denomination Dikshitars are protected by Article 26 in its 2014 ruling.”
“Dikshitars are targeted specifically for the past one and half years on many fronts. We have received more than 20 notices so far and have responded to them legally. We have asked them to prove at least one charge with proof and they have failed so far”, he said. Meanwhile, Dravidianist rejoiced in HRCE’s deception, mocking those who condemned the sacrilegious act. Some made crass comments like Brahmins should wear threads made out of iron if they were so upset about their janeu being cut off. If it was a rosary or skull cap would they make the same comment?
On the other hand, Dikshitars have alleged that some disgruntled people among them are spreading misinformation about temple affairs to get back at those who are at the helm. As per The Hindu report, they claim that “a malicious disinformation campaign was being carried out by some elements, against the temple and the Dikshithars over the past few days, over the issue of offering worship from the Kanakasabhai mandapam in the temple”. Their counsel Chandrasekhar confirmed this saying, “While there was no opposition from devotees, a former Dikshithar who was expelled from the committee along with a few of his supporters had been engaging in erroneous propaganda and spreading misinformation”.
In 2019, one of the Dikshitars, Darshan, was in the news when he slapped a woman devotee who questioned him for his indifferent attitude while doing puja. This Darshan and his father Sakthi Ganesha Dikshitar seem to have some grouse with the other Dikshitars. As per the version of Dikshitars who are part of the administration, Darshan was dismissed from the temple and levied a penalty for his conduct in 2019 and bringing a bad reputation to the temple administration.
Irked by this he and his father were itching to find an opportunity to avenge the other Dikshitars. They brought a woman devotee and tried to make her climb the Kanakasabhai. It was restricted public access at that time due to Covid-19 scare. When Dikshitars tried to send her away they claimed untouchability and made the woman file a case under the Prevention of SC ST Atrocities Act against them.
DMK is irked that one temple can prosper and continue to operate without hundi collection and land grants successfully. It fears that such an example would demolish its argument that Brahmins are corrupt and discriminate against people based on caste and class. Dikshitars’ counsel pointed out that unlike any major temple controlled by HRCE where devotees are discriminated against based on the amount they can append to buy special darshan tickets, one can get darshan of Nataraja in Chidambaram in 5 minutes as there is no such discrimination.
Why would the government actively support spoiling such a successful model instead of learning from it? Yet, HRCE minister Sekar Babu has repeated for the nth time that his department is ‘gathering evidence’ to bring the temple under its control.
