RSS wants ‘atonement pooja’ after MLA’s visit to temple

Hasan Ali, the Ramanathapuram MLA belonging to the DMK, said he had accompanied a friend from the US on June 11 to the temple along with Ravichandra Ramavanni, DCC president and a descendant of the Ramanathapuram royal family. “I have been playing inside the temple premises since I was seven or eight years old. Even last year after my victory in the May Assembly election, the temple priests greeted me with a parivattam (silk turban). The BJP is only trying to make political mileage out of my visit,” Hasan told The Indian Express.

On June 14, posters appeared across the walls of Rameswaram condemning Hasan’s visit and demanding the punniya vasanam. Rani Bhanumathi Nachiar, the chairperson of the Ramanathasamy Temple Devosthanam Trust said: “No such pooja has been conducted so far and there is no need for it either.”

However, Kuppu Ram, the RSS Ramanathapuram district president, is adamant, demanding that the temple authorities conduct the pooja immediately “to cleanse” the premises. “Persons from other community cannot enter the garba graham. This is the rule laid down by the Government and there is a board which says so inside the temple premises. While the Nepal Royal family is permitted to visit the sanctum sanctorum, a purification ceremony by splashing saffron water in the temple premises is always conducted after their visit. President Kalam always respected Hindu sentiments by not entering the sanctum sanctorum,” he said.