By Kavita Mistry 
In February 2020, less than a year of Jagan in the CM office, the chariot of the Prasanna Venkateshwara Swamy temple was charred in a fire in Nellore district. This episode was followed by sporadic cases of temple vandalism, desecrations of idols in several places such as Pithapuram and Rajahmundry.
To make matters worse, the 40-ft tall wooden chariot of Lord Lakshmi Narasimha at Antarvedi caught fire under mysterious circumstances in September 2020. Tensions prevailed at the temple town in East Godavari district, as the BJP, the JSP, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and other Hindu outfits intensified agitation over the chariot gutting.
Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief Naidu and his JSP counterpart Kalyan had then sought a CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) probe, pointing to a pattern in incidents occurring at Hindu religious places.
Andhra Pradesh has been a progressive, pluralistic State where all faiths have thrived & co-existed peacefully. However, under the tyrannical YSRCP regime, people of AP are now fearful of a continuous state-sponsored attack on their faiths. More than 20 such attacks have occurred pic.twitter.com/rogADCo6eq
— N Chandrababu Naidu (@ncbn) September 9, 2020
Perhaps, the most disturbing episode occurred three months on, when an ancient Lord Rama idol in a small shrine on Ramatheertham hillock near Vizianagaram was desecrated.
Naidu had then rallied at Ramatheertham in North Andhra, calling Jagan a ‘Christian CM’. “The CM might be a Christian and might have intentions to convert Hindus. But to wilfully resort to wrongdoings, with intention of conversions while in the CM position is inappropriate, amounting to betrayal,” Naidu said, portraying Jagan a ‘Hindu drohi’ (traitor of Hindus).
Making charges of rampant proselytization activities even at revered Hindu pilgrimage places like Tirupati, Annavaram, Naidu had alleged that in the 1.5 years since Reddy came to power, “127 temple attacks took place”, including destruction of 40 idols, like one at Rajahmundry. Later, the TDP put the number at 140-plus.
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YSRCP retorts
The tables are now turned five years on. And the YSRCP has plenty of ammunition to launch a blitzkrieg—be it the deaths of star tortoises at Srikurmam temple, or the latest episode of the Simhachalam temple wall collapse.
Naidu, the YSRCP leaders say, persisted in blaming Jagan even after becoming the CM, as in the case of the Tirupati laddu ghee adulteration episode.
“Being in a responsible position, Naidu hurt the sentiments of crores of Hindus, resorting to a false propaganda that the YSRCP was responsible for ghee adulteration. He sought to smear the blame on Jagan with baseless allegations,” YSRCP senior leader Malladi Vishnu told ThePrint.
The CM’s sensational claims, in September last year, of Lord Venkateshwara’s prasadam adulterated with animal fat caused a nationwide outrage. The matter is under investigation by a CBI director supervised Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe.
Jagan, according to Malladi, was targeted for being a Christian but “it was their leader who rebuilt several temples razed by the previous TDP government at Vijayawada on the pretext of Krishna Pushkaralu (Kumbh).”
The YSRCP is now collating the incidents of temple, idol vandalism “akin to what happened during Jagan regime and which TDP, BJP, JSP utilised for political gains”
“Apart from the alleged miscreant acts at some temples like of Venkateshwara Swamy at Krosuru, razing of temples, Hindu structures is being carried out by the local or state authorities at several places like Nellore, Narasaraopeta stating it as for road widening or other reasons,” Malladi said.
At YSR home turf Kadapa in March, forest authorities demolished goshala and annadaanam structures of the revered Kasi Nayana Jyothi Kshetram inside the Nallamala forest tiger corridor area.
YSRCP leaders say that as the CM, Jagan disallowed such an action and in August 2023, wrote to the Centre for diversion of about 13 acres of forest lands for the use of the shrine having immense local sentiments.
TDP general secretary and HRD, IT minister Nara Lokesh expressed regret over hurt sentiments of millions of devotees and condemned the hurried bull dozer action of the forest department officials. The TDP scion promised to reconstruct the annadana satram (chowltry) with his personal funds.
Last month, YSRCP staged protests in Tirupati alleging deaths of over 100 cows in the past three months at the cowsheds run by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD).
Former TTD chairman and YSRCP leader Bhumana Karunakar Reddy demanded a thorough inquiry, challenging the TTD to prove the photos of dead cows he released were morphed.
“TTD executive officer Syamala Rao said that 43 cows had died while chairman B.R.Naidu says it was 22 cows. CM Naidu’s claim is that there were no deaths at all in the goshala,” said Bhumana, accusing them of conflicting accounts, lacking transparency.
Bhumana said that during Jagan’s tenure, the goshala flourished with over 550 cows of indigenous breeds from Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Punjab brought in and 1,700 litres of milk sent to Tirumala for daily rituals. “Now not even 500 litres of milk is sent to the temple. The holy cow’s life is under threat at the goshala,” the former Tirupati MLA said.
The YSRCP is also highlighting the deaths of star tortoises, revered as embodiment of Lord Vishnu, at Srikurmam temple, near Srikakulam as a “grave sacrilege” resulting from failure of the endowments department.
Malladi accused the temple authorities of cremating the tortoises without conducting post-mortems to suppress the causes and demanded an immediate inquiry into the deaths, and strict action against those responsible.
‘Devotees deaths a routine now’
On Wednesday after the death of seven devotees due to the wall collapse at Simhachalam, former endowments minister Vellampalli Srinivas accused the government of treating Hindus as a vote bank while failing to ensure their safety at sacred sites.
On Thursday, Tirupati MP and YSRCP leader Maddila Gurumoorthy wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah urging an urgent inquiry into repeated administrative failures and security lapses at major temples in Andhra Pradesh.
The TDP is refuting all the “allegations, aspersions as politically motivated.” “While the incidents during YSRCP regime like temple chariots gutting, Ramatheertham idol vandalism were direct assault on Hindu faith and sentiments, these are accidents, mishaps which will be probed and the guilty punished,” Anam Venkata Ramana Reddy told ThePrint.
“With no other issue to target us, the YSRCP has resorted to politics over religion,” the senior TDP leader said, adding that the likes of Bhumana should approach courts if they have evidence of negligence resulting in cow deaths.
Similarly, JSP minister Nadendla Manohar said that “tragedy is not a time to do politics.”
“Pawan Kalyan is deeply anguished over the loss of lives at temples like he was when the Tirupati stampede happened. He sought accountability from TTD and government authorities. Two of the deceased at Simhachalam are our party activists. There are lapses and a probe should reveal the culprits, for necessary action,” he told ThePrint.
On Wednesday, Jagan rushed to Visakhapatnam to console the families of the Simhachalam wall collapse victims. Stating the mishap as resulting from sheer negligence on part of the government, Jagan demanded that the kin of the deceased should be given Rs 1 crore ex gratia like he did for the LG Polymers gas leak victims in May 2000.
CM Naidu had earlier announced Rs 25 lakh compensation in Simhachalam case.
Jagan highlighted the 2015 stampede at Godavari Pushkarams in Rajahmundry that claimed 29 pilgrim lives, six pilgrim deaths in Tirupati in January, and the Simhachalam tragedy to claim that Hindu devotee deaths have become a routine under Naidu.
“Chandrababu tried to politicise the Tirupati laddu issue and during Vaikunta Ekadasi, six pilgrims died in the Tirupati stampede. The police were deputed to Kuppam for the CM’s visit and devotees had to pay a heavy price. Thereafter, we saw cows dying in large numbers at Tirupati Goshala and star tortoises at the holy Srikurmam. Bulldozers razed Kasinayana ashram at Kadapa,” Jagan said.
The YSRCP head accused Naidu of habitually forming probe committees in response to incidents but “the reports are never known.” The government should take stringent action against those responsible for the Simhachalam incident “instead of resorting to diversionary tactics”, he added.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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