Tiruchendur temple authorities refused to allow the padayatra devotees with paalkudam (milk pots) to enter the temple, State Vice President of Hindu Munnani Shri. V.P. Jayakumar has alleged in a statement condemning the authorities.
The statement reads,”Tiruchendur Subramanya Swamy Temple, one of the six houses dedicated to Lord Murugan, has an age-old tradition of devotees taking a milk pot and going on a padayatra. Around 300 devotees of Lord Muruga from Devakottai in Sivagangai district had walked for 250 kilometres for nine days to bring milk pots to Lord Muruga at Tiruchendur. Yesterday, when they came to the temple to have darshan, they were stopped by the temple administration and refused to allow them. This has caused pain to the devotees. The devotees would have come with great difficulty and desire to have darshan of Lord Muruga with so much physical and mental pain. It is not acceptable to any conscious human being to stop it brutally without the slightest regard for it.”
He also added, ”The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department is meant to facilitate the worship of the devotees and it is condemnable to stop the devotees from going on a padayatra with devotion for several miles. Economic untouchability is that one can enter the temple only if money is paid. It is a atrocious that the government is implementing this. The devotees, who were walking for 250 km on foot, dumped the milk pot in the outer corridor of the temple premises and have cursed the HR&CE department. God is watching all these atrocities committed by the Tamil Nadu government in temples. Believers know that the officials of the Charitable Endowments Department will surely have to suffer its sins.”
He also questioned the authorities, ‘Why didn’t the Board of Trustees take action in this regard? Whether the Tamil Nadu government has appointed the Board of Trustees as an ornamental committee or is the Board of Trustees a committee without authority? Yesterday’s incident raises questions as to whether the HR&CE department officials and the temple staff are acting in violation of the board of trustees or whether the board of trustees is functioning without any concern for the welfare of the devotees.”
V.P. Jayakumar requested the temple administration,”They should make arrangements for the devotees carrying padayatra, vel, kavadi and milk pot in Tiruchendur to have darshan immediately without making them wait for several hours in a queue. The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Mr. M.K. Stalin and the Minister of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments, Sekar Babu, should take strict action against the temple staff for stopping the devotees of Lord Muruga from entering the temple, otherwise we would like to inform that a protest will be launched soon on behalf of the Hindu Munnani.”
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