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Temple politics takes centrestage as Naidu and Reddy play Hindu card

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 1/13/2021 11:31:54 AM

Hyderabad, Jan 12 Optics matter in politics. Which is why over the past few days, the YSRCP government in Andhra Pradesh has been brandishing a Hindu-friendly identity aggressively with a view to blunt opposition leader Chandrababu Naidu's attempt to paint it as anti- Hindu. While Chief minister Jaganmohan Reddy laid the foundation stone for the reconstruction of nine temples that were demolished by the previous Telugu Desam regime in 2016 for road widening, DGP Gautam Sawang visited the Lord Venkateswara temple in Tirumala. Because several incidents of desecration of temples were reported from different parts of the state in the last few weeks. The Andhra Pradesh police say close to twenty cases of idol desecrations have been reported in 2020 though former Union Civil Aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju puts the number at over one hundred since the YSRCP came to power. The most shocking of them was the vandalisation of the Lord Rama idol at the 400-yearold Ramatheertham temple in Vizianagaram district in December. Temples in Rajahmundry and Visakhapatnam too were vandalised. But it is the political spin to the incidents that caused more bad blood. While the BJP taking umbrage over the run on the temples was on expected lines, Naidu's posturing took many by surprise. The TDP chief said the CM, the Home minister and the police chief were all "Christians" and displayed negligence over the run on Hindu places of worship.