The injured, 3 temple staff and 2 devotees, have been admitted at Srirangam Government Hospital for treatment.
Srirangam temple. (Wikimedia Commons)
In an unexpected turn of events at the Arulmigu Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam in the Tiruchirappalli district, a confrontation between temple staff and devotees on the morning of Tuesday, 12 December, resulted in injuries.
Three temple staff and two devotees from Andhra Pradesh were injured and, subsequently admitted to the Srirangam Government Hospital for treatment.
Both parties filed complaints at the Srirangam Police Station following the altercation. According to a senior police official, an FIR has been registered against the three temple staff, based on the complaint from the devotees, under non-bailable sections of the Indian Penal Code.
The incident led to the closure of the temple for 45 minutes: It reopened only after customary poojas were performed to cleanse the premises.
The clash took place when a group of 35 devotees from Andhra Pradesh, returning from a visit to Sabarimala, arrived at the Srirangam temple at 7 am on Tuesday. The crowded conditions reportedly irked the devotees.
“They were banging the undiyal (donation collection box). When questioned by a police officer, they chanted slogans — ‘police down down’,” a member of the temple staff present during the altercation told South First on condition of anonymity.
A dispute ensued between the temple staff and the devotees. While the temple staff claimed that the devotees initiated the brawl, the state BJP unit, addressing the issue, asserted that a temple staff member threw the first punch — hitting a devotee in the nose.
Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai posted on X, “The Iyyappa devotees who have had 42 days of Vrath, with all devotion, wanted to pray to Ranganatha Swamy after their return from Sabarimala. The Iyyappa devotees questioned the long wait in the queue and special treatment to a select few who were assaulted near the sanctum sanctorum & which resulted in bloodshed inside the temple premises.”
A government which has no faith in Hindu Dharma has no business to be in Hindu Temples.
The Iyyappa devotees who have had 42 days of Vrath, with all devotion, wanted to pray to Ranganatha Swamy after their return from Sabarimala.
The Iyyappa devotees questioned the long wait… pic.twitter.com/4BbNii9La5
— K.Annamalai (மோடியின் குடும்பம்) (@annamalai_k) December 12, 2023
The temple staff countered this claim, stating, “This is Sabarimala season, and there is a temple festival for the next 20 days, starting today. There was no special treatment for any devotee.”
The Tamil Nadu BJP has been campaigning against the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department and has been demanding that the state temples be freed from the maintenance of the department.
Reacting to the temple clash, he said that they would stage a protest outside the temple demanding strict action.
“There was no bloodshed in the temple before. This explains the gross mismanagement of the department,” Narayanan Thirupathy, Tamil Nadu BJP Spokesperson, told South First.
“The HR&CE Department should not hold power as they are mismanaging the temples, violating the principles of the HR&CE Act. The Act says that the department is a supervising body which has to intervene only when there is a problem with temple management (trustees),” he added.
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