New Delhi: As far as causes go, freeing the Tirupati Tirumala temple from government control could not be more appropriate for those who love to beat the drum of Hinduism being in danger. It is one of the richest in the world and has an annual budget with an estimated revenue of Rs 2,937.82 crore for 2021-2022.
Its gold reserves alone measure up to over 9,000 kilograms.
Add to that, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Board is no stranger to controversies — from charges of corruption and financial irregularities to complaints about
violation of traditional rituals and altering them according to its convenience, and more serious allegations about the misappropriation of jewellery.
Two years ago, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy filed a petition at the Andhra Pradesh High Court seeking orders to ‘liberate’ the Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple at Tirumala, Sri Padmavathi temple at Tiruchanur and 11 more from the Andhra Pradesh government’s control. Now, spiritual leader Sadhguru, fresh from his fight to “free temples” of Tamil Nadu from government control, has added his voice to
the issue in response to ThePrint’s query.
“The first step is for the government to acknowledge that the state and religion should not interfere in each other’s affairs and to declare its intent to hand over temples to the community,” Sadhguru told ThePrint. “What that system should be, who should manage it and how can be decided by a specially constituted committee to devolve temple management to devotees. This will be a long and deliberate process as it should be,” he added.
The Constitution enshrines secularism, he says, and points out how all other communities have managed their own spaces of worship, except the Hindus, who have been denied their historic right.
“The Hindu Religious Institutions & Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Act, 1997, places temples under the care of the HR&CE Department. Even if we were to overlook the violation of the constitutional promise of secularism, the Department by its own admission has failed miserably in protecting temples. Worse, it has presided over decades of systematic ruin, theft of temple artefacts and idols, and has all but killed the essence, spirit, and objective with which temples were built,” Sadhguru said.
Swamy’s plea describes the TTD Board, which oversees the management of the temple, as nothing but a body filled with nominees of the political executive and alleges irregularities in the handling of the temple’s wealth. The petition sought a Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) audit of TTD’s funds for the last five years and to make it a regular feature from 2020-21 onwards. The Y.S. Jagan Reddy-led state government agreed to it and TTD, in September 2020, handed over the responsibility for the audit of its accounts to the CAG.
Swamy’s petition to free temples from government control is supported by a number of senior priests who have expressed their displeasure at how the board has been meddling
with the rituals and nullifying their significance. Allegations of thefts of precious jewellery also keep surfacing from time to time.
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15 educational institutes, 65K daily visitors — a temple’s kingdom
Located on top of the Tirumala hill in Chittoor district, 2,500 feet above sea level, in a town spread over 30 sq km, the temple has about a lakh devotees visiting it every day during the peak or festive season. On average, 65,000 people visit the temple daily.
The temple offers ‘darshanam’ (an opportunity for the devotees to look/worship at the
deity) for about 18 hours a day. The town has a capacity to host about 50,000
pilgrims in the trust-managed cottages and provide free food to about one lakh
people daily — and all of this is under the TTD trust’s management, according
to the TTD Public Relations Officer, Thalari Ravi.
Additionally, the trust also manages more than 15 educational institutions and hospitals in the Tirumala and Tirupati towns. The local free transport within the town and arrangements along the 3,550-step Alipiri pathway to Tirumala (devotees walk all the way across seven hills to reach the town as part of their traditional belief) are also under the TTD trust’s management.
“At least 40 per cent of the daily devotees donate their hair to Lord Venkateshwara. The
hair, weighing about 600 kilos a day, is first put in the donation box (hundi) and then taken to warehouses for cleaning and drying. Then it is segregated into different boxes and auctioned in an organised manner. All of this is done under the TTD’s supervision,” Ravi said.
The Andhra Pradesh Charitable and Hindu Religious Institutions and Endowments Act, 1987, permits the state government to constitute the TTD Board, consisting of not more than 29 members, including three members of the state legislature.
The Board was first established in 1932 by the then Madras government under the provisions of the TTD Act. That was years before either India became independent, or the state of Andhra Pradesh came into existence in 1952. It also maintains 12 other temples and their sub-shrines, and employs about 14,000 persons. If we add the outsourced workers, mostly involved in maintenance works, then the number goes up to about 22,000, TTD officials said.
Infosys Foundation chairperson Sudha Murty; industrialists Ramesh Shetty and Sampath Ravi Narayana from Karnataka, two close associates of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao; My Home Group Chairman and prominent industrialist Rameshwar Rao; D Damodar Rao, Managing Director of the Telugu daily Namaste Telangana and Telangana Today; Tamil Nadu MLA Kumarguru; and some YSRCP legislators are members of the TTD board.
Former Board of Control for Cricket In India (BCCI) President and Indian Cements MD N. Srinivasan, and the Hetero Group chairman B. Parthasaradhi Reddy — both
accused in the quid pro quo case of Chief Minister Jagan Reddy, which is being
investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) — are on the board as
well.
“The board is an autonomous body and it is appointed by the state government according to the provisions of its constitution,” its former chairman, Kanumuri Bapi Raju, said to ThePrint. “It does not mean the board is controlled by the state government, or that the temple is under government control. The temple is being run by a trust, which ensures there is no commercial exploitation of the temple. How does it matter as long as there are no complaints?” Raju asked.
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‘TTD Board a farce’
The critics don’t pull back their punches. One of them is former Andhra Pradesh chief
secretary I.Y.R. Krishna Rao, who is now the state BJP’s political affairs committee (PAC) chairman. He described the TTD Board as ‘a farce’ and said the responsibility of managing the temple should be handed over to an independent religious body enjoying the highest credibility.
“It is not any better being under government control, so why not hand it over to an independent body, probably a strong, well-known mutt,” Rao said. “The problem with TTD is the control the government exercises on the way the temple functions. It interferes in temple matters such as puja and darshan timings and the duration of rituals. For instance, when Chief Minister Jagan Reddy did not sign a faith declaration while entering the temple, why did the board not object to it? It could not because government officials are a part of it. How is faith being protected here? The duty of the board is dharma pracharam, or religious preaching. Have they been doing it?” Rao asked.
This is just one of the many controversies that the temple management is mired in. Last
year’s temple visit of the chief minister, a practising Christian, stirred a hornet’s nest over his alleged refusal to sign a faith declaration form, which is mandatory for non-Hindus entering the temple.
In May 2019, the former chief priest, Dr A.V. Ramana Deekshitulu, who was reinstated last
month, alleged financial irregularities and claimed that several precious jewels were missing from the TTD treasury. The state BJP, at that time, also alleged that the crown, which weighed around 5.4 kg, and some jewellery offered by devotees had been missing since October 2017. Deekshitulu had demanded that the TTD should be brought under the Right to Information (RTI) to ensure it functions with transparency.
“They say traditions should last till the sun and moon last,” Deekshitulu said to ThePrint. “Temples have been managed by the families of hereditary priests over centuries. More than 50 priestly families used to manage Tirumala. There needs to be a clear demarcation of traditions of temple from the assets of temple. Even if the government appoints someone to manage the assets of temple, it should not meddle with traditions,” the priest added. He also mentioned that the state government had assured him steps would be taken to streamline how the temple functions.
A significant part of TTD’s riches comes from humongous donations — cash or precious jewels — offered to the deity, especially by ‘VIPs’. The TTD’s contribution to the state government, under the AP Endowments Act, was spiked to Rs 50 crore from Rs 2.5 crore last year following amendments to the Act.
Apart from allegations of financial irregularities, the TTD board also faces criticism for making the ‘darshanam’ a commercial exercise. From a free visit to the temple (referred to as dharma darshanam) to paying about Rs 300 for a quicker darshanam and shelling out at
least Rs 15,000 for a ‘VIP darshanam’, there are multiple options. During the peak season, common people in the ‘free darshanam’ queue might have to wait for more than a day or two for their turn amidst speedy VIP darshans. From prominent actors to politicians, to industrialists, to philanthropists, the temple has many VIP followers.
“The TTD darshanam process has become so corrupt because of a few board officials and others that it is like a bear — just like wherever you touch the animal you find hair, there’s rampant corruption in the system,” a TTD official said to ThePrint on the condition of anonymity.
“Religion can never be under the council of ministers,” according to C.S. Rangarajan, head priest of the Chilkuri Balaji temple, another temple popular with Venkateswara devotees. Government officials see the management of a temple as an administrative responsibility and not a devotional activity, Rangarajan said.
“Each ritual, including its timing, duration and exact mode, has significance. Any tinkering defies the entire purpose of the ritual. For instance, in earlier times, there was no concept of a ‘salary’ being given to a priest or archaka. Back then, rice bags and jaggery from the temple’s agricultural farms — basically, all the items required for their sustenance — were given to them. Other independently-run religious bodies also have controversies or allegations of corruption, but the religious heads will sort the matters out internally,” Rangarajan added.
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‘Board, not state, protects temple’s interests’
Y.V. Subba Reddy, 50th chairman of the TTD and also a leader of the ruling YSRCP, said the existing law and system should continue. The government, he said, was taking steps to ensure the administration was as corruption-free as possible. “I have said this in the past, too, our focus has to be on how to make darshanams truly hassle-free for common people,” Reddy said.
In June 2020, Subramanian Swamy had said the hearing of his petition was in the “final
stages”. According to the co-petitioner, Satya Paul Sabharwal, who is also a lawyer, the hearing was paused because of the Covid-19 pandemic and would resume soon. “We are also having discussions on who should manage the Tirumala temple if the government’s control is taken away and handed over to an independent body. What kind of body could run it and how?” Sabharwal informed ThePrint.
TTD board member K. Shivakumar counters this talk by insisting that the board has been working to protect the traditions and interests of the temple. “It is supreme in matters of running the temple,” he said. “The state government is not involved in the day-to-day administration of the temple.”
With the battle lines drawn, the war over the management of the temples looks set to be a long, drawn-out affair.
In Tamil Nadu, the government has decided to make public all information about temple assets, temple administration and other related work and activities.
Sadhguru described this as a “historic step in the right direction”.
The Tamil Nadu government decision on temples comes amidst a temple war between the state finance minister P.T.R. Palanivel Thiagarajan and the Isha Yoga Centre founder.
The minister lashed out at Sadhguru for his demand to free state temples and called him a publicity hound who was trying to find another angle to make more money. The last riposte has not been fired in this ongoing war of words.
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