Tirupati MLA Bhumana Karunakar Reddy has been appointed as the Chairman of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Board, taking over from former MP YV Subba Reddy whose two-time tenure came to an end on Monday. An official government order declared Karunakar’s selection on August 5.

This latest appointment has come under severe criticism from Hindus and opposition parties because just like the outgoing chairman, Bhumana Reddy is also suspected of having Christian leanings. Hindus in Andhra are facing an existential threat from Christian evangelism, and Tirupati is one of the most sacred spots for Hindus across the world. Although TTD service rules mandate that employees of TTD be practicing Hindus, there have been several cases in the past where non-Hindus were found employed there.

The TTD chairman’s role carries significant influence, overseeing the assets of the world’s wealthiest Hindu temple trust, valued at over Rs 2.5 lakh crore. The board consists of 20 members.

This will be the second time that Bhumana, a two-time MLA from Tirupati, will be occupying the most coveted TTD chairmanship position. He was earlier appointed as the TTD chairman between 2006-2008 by the Congress party government headed by the then chief minister Dr YS Rajasekhar Reddy, father of present cam YS Jagan Reddy. Karunakar Reddy, a staunch loyalist of the YSR family, was then in the Congress.

In 2016, Karunakar Reddy’s daughter Neeha Reddy was married to Y.S. Sumadhur Reddy, the cousin of Jagan (son of his father’s brother). The outgoing TTD Chairman YV Subba Reddy is the uncle of Jagan (married to his mother’s sister).

Incidentally, there have been a spate of temple desecrations, most still unexplained & without any perpetrators being convicted, in Andhra ever since the Jagan Reddy led YSRCP govt came into power in 2019.

All in the family

The YSR political clan, starting from later Dr. YS Rajasekhar Reddy (current CM Jagan Reddy’s father) are Christian. Christian conversion is almost like a family business for this family. The state-backed efforts to spread Christianity in Andhra Pradesh started under the CM stint of YSR in 2004, who was also a loyalist of Congress’ Catholic supremo Sonia Gandhi. His efforts included staffing the govt with Christian officers, installing Christians in Tirupati administration and also through his openly evangelist son-in-law, ‘Brother’ Anil Kumar.

The covert state support for evangelical activities by successive Andhra governments led by the YSR clan, the Christian-votebank pandering of other parties in Andhra like TDP, and the institutionalized incentivization for conversion through abuse of reservation benefit and other govt schemes, has led to a situation where experts believe that the true Christian population in Andhra is 25%, and not the dubious 1.34% as recorded in the last census conducted in 2011.

Opposition parties oppose the new appointment

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has criticised the appointment, citing Bhumana’s Christian connections and past blasphemous comments on Sri Venkateshwara. Speaking to Hindustan Times, TDP state secretary Buchi Ram Prasad made the following statements:

“How can he be made the TTD chief though he did not have any faith in Hinduism? Everybody knows Bhumana has Christian connections. We have all the evidence to prove that Bhumana has Christian connections. In the past, there was a marriage at his residence, which took place completely as per Christian traditions

“Even during the previous regime as the TTD chief, Bhumana had hurt the sentiments of the Hindus by declaring that Tirumala did not comprise seven hills but only five hills. He had to backtrack after encountering protests from devotees and Hindu organisations,” he said.

The former chief secretary of Andhra Pradesh and Bharatiya Janata Party leader I Y R Krishna Rao, too criticised the Jagan government for appointing Bhumana as the TTD chief. In a statement, Rao who had also worked as the TTD executive officer in the past, said it was unfortunate that the TTD trust board chief post had become a political appointment. “Only those who had immense faith in the Lord should be appointed as the TTD chairman,” he said.

Senior YSRCP leader from Rayalaseema G Srikanth Reddy stated there was ‘no controversy over Bhumana’s religious faith, stating that people of his constituency know him and his lifestyle’. 

There are images of Bhumana Reddy’s daughter’s wedding circulating in social media where the bride and groom are seen to be wearing clothes pertinent to a Christian wedding.

Crypto Christianity and riding roughshod over Hindu believers

Andhra Pradesh is infamous for the fast-spreading cancer of crypto-Christianity, in which converted Christians officially maintain their Hindu identity to fraudulently avail quota benefits which accrue to Hindu SC/OBC communities, or to continue fooling the Hindu ‘majority’ on whose votes they depend or to carry on their ethnocidal religious proselytization without resistance.

While Bhumana Karunakar Reddy has claimed he is a ‘staunch Hindu’, even if he is a crypto-Christian who follows the faith personally while masquerading as a Hindu, proving that officially is next to impossible in our ‘secular’ Republic.

In Jan 2021, the Andhra High Court stated –

“if a person is known after a name found in the Bible, attended a Christian meeting, read the Holy Bible, and kept the Cross in his house, all these cannot be construed to mean he’s a Christian.”

In Oct 2021, the Madras High Court stated –

‘going to Church or displaying Holy Cross cannot be ground to cancel SC certificate’

In July 2023, the Mumbai High Court stated –

‘Mere’ cross at entrance and bust of Jesus inside house is no basis to discard claim for Hindu Mahar scheduled caste certificate‘

But such is the apathy/hostility towards Hindu Dharma in our secular polity, that rather than avoiding controversial political appointments to such a sacred temple and respecting the sentiments of Hindu believers and Dharmagurus, the YSRCP govt has decided to bulldoze its agenda over them.