A DMK MP has objected to Bhumi puja being performed while initiating government projects. The MP demanded that a padre, imam and atheists also be present in the event to maintain the ‘secular’ aspect of the state. The poor Brahmin pujari who was called to perform the puja was rudely asked to remove the puja items and go away.
Dharmapuri Loksabha MP Dr.Senthil Kumar was invited to attend the bhumi puja of a renovation project under the Prime Minister Krishi Sinchayee Yojana scheme organised by the Public Welfare Department. The government official who organised the event had called a pujari to perform bhumi puja. The MP appears to have taken a dislike to Hindu customs on that particular day and started lashing out at the officer. In a video he shared on Twitter, he can be seen asking, “Do you have the instructions or not? that it shouldn’t be done in government events?”.
While the official kept apologizing, he asked about his post in a threatening tone. “What is this? Where are the other religions? Where are Christians and Muslims? Where are those from Dravidar Kazhagam? Where are atheists? Where are they? Call the Christian priest, Call the imam”. The pitiable officer kept apologizing and told him they were present in the crowd gathered there. But the MP asked the pujari to remove the puja items in a disgusted tone, saying, “Doing all this in a government event..Do you know or not that you shouldn’t do it in government events?”.
The officer defended his decision to call the pujari, saying pujaris perform puja in government events attended by ministers. The MP had none of it and said, “Does it happen in any events attended by the CM? Did you get the instructions or not? Don’t call me to such events”. He further said, “This a government for everyone. It is a Dravidian model government. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have called him. You should have called a Christian priest, an Imam and some atheists”.
Many called the diatribe a staged one as the same MP had flagged off a government bus on a new route after a pujari showed aarti to the bus. It could be only a coincidence that a person representing people belonging to all religions doesn’t know the fact that only Hindus perform bhumi puja. Even if invited, a Christian priest or an imam can do nothing as they don’t worship Bhuma Devi or have groundbreaking rituals.
If one remembers a Christian priest who openly said that he campaigned for the DMK candidate in Kanyakumari, abused Bhuma Devi saying, “We wear shoes so that we don’t catch scabies from her”. So the MP’s attempts to appear like he is only trying to be ‘secular’ is a sham. He is initiating rabid Dravidian organizations to demand that Hindu worship be stopped from being performed at government events.
The MP said that Hindu rituals aren’t performed in events attended by the CM. But there are numerous examples of CM attending HRCE and other department functions during which Hindu rituals were performed. His video from the opening ceremony of Mettur dam’s sluice gates went viral as he threw the plate along with the flowers. Which other religion offers flowers than Hindu dharma? It is to be noted that the MP was only concerned about the Abrahamic faiths and not Jaina or Buddhist religions.
Some people observed that the MP’s antics could have been staged. Nevertheless, he has set the stage for anti-hindu organizations to use it to seek a ban on Hindu worship in government events. BJP state president K Annamalai condemned the MP’s act and said in a public meeting, “Worshipping Bhuma Devi is a tradition followed by Hindus from time immemorial. Today DMK men are saying don’t do Bhumi Puja. If we let this be, soon they will impose a ban on wearing bindi visiting temples too”. He also pointed out that the MP had insulted the Brahmin priest by forcing him to leave and abusing his and other Hindus’ way of life.
