- Wednesday, April 24, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
A MEMBER of the state Assembly in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has set up a temple to honour the state’s chief minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy to showcase his government’s nine social welfare schemes.
B Madhusudan Reddy, who is a member of the ruling YSR Congress and represents Srikalahasti Assembly in Andhra’s Chittoor district, has built the temple in Srikalahasti town, which is home to many ancient temples. The temple features many images of Jaganmohan Reddy, who is the son of late Indian National Congress chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy who died in a helicopter crash in 2009. Jaganmohan had a fallout with the Congress as the party high command refused to make him the chief minister to succeed his late father and he left the grand-old party to form the YSR Congress with her mother YS Vijayamma, who is also a politician. Jaganmohan eventually became the 17th chief minister of Andhra Pradesh in 2019.
The temple dedicated to him by his party colleague is called ‘Navaratnalu Nilayam’ and it cost the legislator Rs 20 million ($269,000). Craftsmen from the neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka were roped in to construct it. While images of the chief minister were embedded all around the sprawling temple, especially in gold and silver-coloured structure, the highlight of the structure remains its nine pillars, each signifying a welfare scheme and carrying its name and details.
“The purpose behind building the temple is to showcase the nine major social welfare schemes of YS Jagan government,” Madhusudan, who is known to be a staunch loyalist of the chief minister, told Gulf News. Although the temple built in his honour is a Hindu-style one, Jaganmohan Reddy is a practising Christian.
Jaganmohan has created a record during his chief ministership by launching numerous welfare schemes for women, farmers and other weaker sections of the society, offering relief like free education, medical treatment, financial assistance to farmers and pensions.
“YS Jaganmohan Reddy has outperformed several chief ministers in the country and his Navaratnalu (9 gems) schemes have impacted the lives of over 56 million people across the state,” Madhusudhan Reddy added.
Visitors at the temple are not given prasadam (holy sweet) but pamphlets detailing the welfare schemes undertaken by the government. Similarly, unlike in other temples, the visitors will not have to donate money to the temple but drop complaints on any issue into a special box kept near the entrance.
Meanwhile, Mayur Munde, a worker of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also constructed a temple in the honour of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi in Pune in the western Indian state of Maharashtra with a bust of him placed inside. However, the bust was later removed.
Some workers of the Nationalist Congress Party, which is a part of Maharashtra’s ruling coalition, staged a mock protest outside the temple in Pune’s Aundh area.
“Optimism had prevailed in the city that now (after construction of the temple for Modi), the fuel prices would come down, inflation would dip and people will get Rs 15 lakh in their accounts. However, we came here and saw that the ‘god’ is missing from the temple,” NCP city unit president Prashant Jagtap said sarcastically.
He also said constructing such a temple dedicated to Modi was a symbol of “intellectual bankruptcy”.
Munde, 37, had earlier said the temple was his tribute to the prime minister who “built Ram temple at Ayodhya”.
“After becoming PM, Modi has done a lot of developmental work and dealt with issues such as the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir, Ram Mandir construction and triple talaq successfully,” PTI quoted him as saying.
Munde had also said the prime minister’s bust as well as the red marble used in construction were brought from Jaipur and the total expenditure was around Rs 1.6 lakh ($2,151).
