Jagan Refuses to Sign Declaration in Tirumala

Jagan is starting his foot march (Padayatra) from this Monday. Just 2 days before starting his padayatra, today, he visited Tirumala. He came to Tirumala in a traditional Hindu dress along with his close aides. All was well until TTD superintendent came with the forms of declaration to be signed, but it is then Jagan sprang surprise as he just ignored and moved on. Full details are as below.

In 1990, a government order was released (G.O. No. 311). (GO MS No. 311 of AP Revenue Endowments-1). As per this, – “It is now a mandatory rule for all those belonging to various faiths other than Hinduism

to sign a declaration form before entering the hill temple stating that they have faith in the presiding deity.” In line with this G.O.311, TTD’s act number 136 was incorporated in TTD rules. According to this rule, the people belonging to other religions must sign the formal declaration for Tirumala darshan. Even though TTD can not identify all non-Hindus visiting Tirumala and ask them to sign the declaration, TTD made it mandatory for the VIPs to sign the declaration.

When Sonia Gandhi visited TTD way back, she had signed the declaration form. But Jagan never signed the form though he is a christian. And this is not the first time. In 2012, after floating YSRCP, he visited Tirumala along with Bhumana Karunakara Reddy and denied to sign the form when TTD superintendent asked him to do so. Bhumana was former TTD chairman and he also did not insist Jagan to sign that time. Fast forward to 2017, again the same scene repeated. But this time TTD officials did not force him to sign. They just came and showed the forms. Jagan and co just ignored the forms and moved on. This triggered sort of controversy yet again. But immedeiately after this episode, Bhumana Karunakara Reddy gave statement that Jagan is staunch follwer of Hinduism.

Well, there could different repercussions for this episode. In fact, technically there is a catch here. Many people who convert to christianity follow that religion but they don’t bother to change the name of religion in their education or other certificates. That means, as per records they are still Hindus. Even while filing the nomination form (Form 2A of election commission) for contesting as Member of parliament or Member of Legislative Assembly (Form 2B of election commission) one need not reveal his or her religion or caste unless they are contesting in a reserved constituency (for Scheduled caste or Scheduled tribes) in elections. So, nobody knows which religion Jagan is claiming in his certificates and other official records- Hindu or Christian. Of course, his family follows protestant christian faith and that is known to all. Having one religion in certificate and following another is also not a crime as per supreme court verdicts as long as he is not receiving any benefit from the government because of that religion. So, If as per the certificates , Jagan is a Hindu, he need not sign TTD declaration. But if he is Christian as per records, he MUST have signed the declaration and showed his respect for the norms and government orders.

Forget about legal repercussions for some time, let’s see what kind of questions Jagan will have to face from people in this regard. To be frank, Jagan could attract most of the minority votes in 2014 – mainly because this vote bank shifted from Congress party to YSRCP as Congress lost its existence in AP. Moreover, Muslims mostly stay away from BJP and its alliance parties and they had no option other than YSRCP in 2014 in AP. But Jagan, after 2014 elections, came to the conclusion that his ‘Christian’ tag made Hindus kept him at bay and started various attempts to attract Hindus (and their votes). His recent meet with Chinna Jeeyar Swamy seeking his blessings is one such attempt. He also met Swarupananda Swamy and sought his blessings. His close associates are talking of doing ‘Yagas and Yagnas’, of late. And, Jagan today went for Tirumala Darshan. All of this is fine, but when the TTD superintendent came with those declaration forms to be signed, he simply ignored and moved on. If he is a Hindu as per records, in which case he need not sign, he can openly declare his faith to the people. But, as everyone knows, he can not do that. And if he is christian by faith as per records too, there is nothing wrong in that as anybody can practice any religion as per constitution but he must have signed the forms at TTD and show his respect for the norms. But, for some reason, he did not do that too.

Jagan seems to be somehow losing his strong base in minorities by giving unconditional support to Modi and BJP at times and at the same time he is not gaining the new base in majorities by doing this kind of silly mistakes. One thing that he, or for that matter any political leader needs to understand is this – they can not simply pretend on something and gain political advantage. People are not that gullible. Don’t take people for granted !!!