As the HRCE department couldn’t find any irregularities in the administration of Chidambaram Nataraja temple, the DMK government has unleashed police force on the pujaris allegedly based on fake complaints of child marriage. The affected families have alleged that their children are being harassed and medical tests are performed on them, violating the child rights body’s guidelines.
Dravidian organisations have been eyeing Chidambaram Nataraja temple and calls to take over the temple were made even before DMK assumed power. Since the DMK government was sworn in Dravidianists have been trying to find one reason or another to harass Podhu Dikshitars, who are the hereditary pujaris of the temple. First, HRCE made corruption and mismanagement allegations against the Dikshitars and officials entered the temple by force for inspection.
When Dikshitars asked them to show the complaints they received which prompted the inspection, they didn’t have anything to show. Later HRCE announced that anyone can come forward to file complaints about corruption and mismanagement in the temple and gave 2 days. Media hyped this announcement and claimed that thousands of complaints were received. But no action has been taken on those complaints so far.
HRCE officials entered the temple and inspected the accounts and other things, but couldn’t find anything worth filing a case. Then came the allegations that Chidambaram Dikshitars are conducting child marriages. Makkal Adhikaram, an urban naxal NGO filed a complaint in the Chidambaram police station in this regard.
Eswara Dikshitar, one of the pujaris at the temple, told TNIE that a couple of Dikshitars who had a fall out with others gave a list of alleged child marriages to the Social Welfare Department and Makkal Adhikaram. They gave it to the police and filed a complaint based on the list and 8 families of Dikshitars have been arrested so far. But Dikshitars say that they had planned to conduct their children’s marriages only after they attained the age as per law.
They allege that police are pressuring the families of the girls to give “non-existent photos of the wedding”. They have written to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), accusing that their daughters are subjected to extreme medical tests and clinical examinations. The children are losing mental peace as a result of the investigations, they say. They have also accused the police of harassing their womenfolk by making them stay at the police station at ungodly hours.
Other Dikshitars staged a peaceful protest condemning the harassment and were manhandled and arrested by the police. Those who weren’t arrested during the protest went to the court seeking protection from arrest, which was granted and extended for two more weeks till November 14. While they protested against arresting Dikshitars out of the blue without providing any reason, media twisted it as Dikshitars coming together in support of child marriage.
BBC Tamil reported that since June 2022 Social Welfare Department received information about 4 child marriages conducted by Chidambaram Dikshitars. 2 of the incidents were from 2021 and one involved the chief of the Chidambaram temple management committee. The media had a field day whenever Dikshitars were arrested. So it is curious that in such a high-profile case no solid evidence to prove that child marriages did happen hasn’t come out yet. It is notable that in high-profile sexual harassment cases, even if the victims are underage, the media releases evidence such as photos, screenshots of chats, etc to shame the perpetrators.
Makkal Adhikaram, the NGO involved in the issue is a rabid anti-Hindu, anti-Brahmin naxal organisation. Raji, a lawyer who filed complaint about child marriage on behalf of Makkal Adhikaram, gloated that Dikshitars were dragged by their tufts. In another issue of allowing people to climb a platform in front of the garbhagriha, Dikshitars stood steadfast that the government shouldn’t have any business poking into temple affairs.
But HRCE passed an order allowing people to climb the platform and police entered the temple by force to implement it. Makkal Adhikaram members were part of the crowd that wanted to forcibly enter. Describing this incident, Raji said, “The commando force entered. But they(Brahmins) had applied oil on their bodies. So when police tried to grab them they kept slipping away. It was like a battlefield. In the end only after getting hold of their tufts, did the policemen throw them out”. These are the kind of people filing complaints based on which Dikshitars are harassed.
The DMK government has been trying to find fault with Dikshitars’ administration from the day it was sworn in and staging incidents to trump up charges against them. The HRCE minister openly said that they were looking into possibilities and legal process of taking over the Chidambaram temple and that the CM is personally involved in this.
They tried to instigate Dikshitars against each other by making one of them, a disgruntled pujari, file a complaint against the administrative committee. Next, they filed a complaint under the SC, ST Atrocities Act with the help of another disgruntled Dikshitar by staging an incident where a woman tried to break the rules. DMK government is hell bent on taking over the temple and personal affairs like child marriage are blamed upon the whole community to wrench the temple from their hands.
