Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday alleged that the Tamil Nadu government administered temples have barred puja for Lord Ram on the consecration day of the temple in Ayodhya, saying that she condemns this “anti-Hindu, hateful action”.
In a post on X, tagging a Tamil daily, Sitharaman alleged, “TN govt has banned watching live telecast of #AyodhaRamMandir programmes of 22 Jan 24. In TN there are over 200 temples for Shri Ram. In HR&CE managed temples no puja/bhajan/prasadam/annadanam in the name of Shri Ram is allowed. Police are stopping privately held temples also from organising events. They are threatening organisers that they will rip off pandals. Strongly condemn this anti-Hindu, hateful action.”
“Heart-breaking scenes in several parts of TN. People are threatened for organising #bhajans, feeding the poor, celebrating with sweets even as we wish to watch Hon. PM @narendramodi participate in #Ayodhya. Cable TV operators are told that there is a likely power-shut down during the live telecast. This is I.N.D.I Alliance partner DMK’s anti-Hindu efforts.(sic)” she added.
In response, Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Minister, P K Sekar Babu said there is “no such ban”.
“Strongly condemn the spreading of false information in an attempt to divert people’s attention from the DMK Youth Conference in Salem,” he said in a post on X.
“The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department hasn’t imposed any limitations on devotees’ freedom to offer food, conduct poojas in the name of Shri Ram, or provide prasad in Tamil Nadu temples.
It is unfortunate that people in office, like Union Finance Minister Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman and others, are purposefully propagating this erroneous information,” he added.
Sekar Babu also dubbed the reportage as completely false and said it has ulterior motives, reported PTI.
The consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya will take place tomorrow, which will see the presence of Narendra Modi performing rituals for the ‘pran prathistha’ ceremony.