telangana

Updated: Sep 08, 2019 08:35 IST

After an engraving of Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s face inside the famous Hindu shrine in the state’s Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district triggered a row, the state government has asked temple authorities to remove of all such carvings from the temple precincts.

A decision to this effect was taken by the officials of the chief minister’s office after a meeting with the authorities of Yadadri Temple Development Authority (YTDA) and temple architects late on Saturday evening.

Special secretary to the chief minister K Bhoopal Reddy told the authorities of the Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple that except those related to gods and the temple, no other pictures or symbols will be allowed on the temple walls and pillars.

On Saturday morning, hundreds of Bharatiya Janata Party activists led by party state unit president Dr K Laxman and MLA T Raja Singh stormed the temple complex at Yadagirigutta, about 65km from Hyderabad, and staged a protest.

They were protesting after images of KCR, his Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s election symbol and his government’s programmes were carved on the pillars and walls of the 1,000-year-old temple, which is being renovated at a cost of Rs 1800 crore.

The BJP leaders, who were taken into custody by the police, set a week’s deadline for the government to remove all the images depicting KCR and his party.

CMO officials asked the temple authority’s special officer G Kishan Rao and art director Ananda Sai under whose direction the pictures of various leaders, including KCR, Indira Gandhi and Mahatma Gandhi, and symbols of certain political parties were engraved as part of the constructions.

The YTDA officials replied they had not given any instructions to carve the portraits of the political leaders and party symbols and that one or two sculptors did the work on their own. They said the CM never wanted his portrait to be carved in the temple vicinity.

Bhoopal Reddy said the chief minister wanted only pictures portraying the importance and greatness of the temple and related to spirituality to be carved and engraved on the temple. He instructed all the pictures of political leaders and party symbols and other such objectionable material should be removed forthwith.

The renovated temple will be thrown open for pilgrims in February next year, when the Telangana chief minister is planning to perform the Maha Sudharshana Yagam, the mother of all yagnams, and invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others including Vaishnavite seers from across the country.