Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Tuesday told the Assembly that no [traditional] priest had been removed from temple service for the recent appointment of 58 new priests from all communities.
“A section seeks to derail the appointments by deliberately making posts on social media. No priest has been removed from his post. If anyone proves that a priest has been removed for new postings, the government will immediately take action. One should not have any doubt,” he said after HR&CE Minister P.K. Sekarbabu made a clarification on the issue.
Mr. Stalin said people know a campaign was run on social media to undermine social justice.
Pointing out that training for archakas was launched by the erstwhile Karunanidhi government “to remove the thorn in the heart of Periyar [E V Ramasamy]”, the Chief Minister said it could not be implemented because of some reasons. “Now we have implemented and issued appointment orders. Those who are unable to stomach it are running a campaign on social media. I do not blame the media,” he said.
Mr. Sekarbabu earlier said the government had no plans to evict the bhattacharyas and priests from the service of temples. He said since Muthukumar, the priest performing pooja at Naganathaswamy temple in Tiruchi was also functioning as a priest in Tharukavaneswarar temple, a new priest was appointed for Naganathaswamy temple.
Mr. Sekarbabu also clarified that a retired Ranganatha Bhattachariyar of the Venkatesa Perumal temple in Sattur was replaced by new priest Srinivasan.
“Mr Srinivasan is also a Vaishnavite brahmin. The Department has employed Ranganatha Bhattachariyar in another small temple inside the temple even though he is retired and around 70 years old,” he explained.
“We are taking these measures to draw the youth towards spiritualism,” he said.