Former chief priest of Lord Venkateshwara temple on Tirumala A V Ramana Deekshitulu who has started expressing his unhappiness over the state of affairs in the TTD for the last few days, seems to have decided to continue his tirade.
On Thursday, Ramana Deekshitulu spit fire at the senior officials of the TTD for continuing to allow darshans in the Tirumala temple despite a surge in Covid-19 cases on the sacred hills.
Tagging Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, Deeskshitulu tweeted that 15 out of 50 archakas had been quarantined after testing positive for Covid-19.
“Still 25 results are awaited. But TTD executive officer and Assistant Executive Officer refuse to stop darshans,” he said.
Deekshitulu, who was back in Tirumala as honorary chief priest in December, alleged that the TTD officials were obediently following anti-hereditary archaka and anti-Brahmin policy of TDP and its president N Chandrababu Naidu.
“Disaster if this continues. Please take action,” he asked the chief minister.
Apparently, Deekshitulu is also not happy with Jagan which was evident from the way he retweeted the comment of former chief secretary and Bharatiya Janata Party leader IYR Krishna Rao: “Maata tappam, madama tippam only for public consumption.”
Obviously, Krishna Rao was referring to the oft-repeated claim of the chief minister that he would never go back on his promises and beat retreat any policy.
The TTD priest also commented that administration and finances can be managed by a non-political body under Supreme Court, indicating that there should be no interference from the government or the ruling party.
A few days ago, too, Ramana Deekshitulu made some serious comments against the TTD officials. He said during the Telugu Desam Party regime, more than 20 hereditary priests had been removed from the service in the name of superannuation.
“Though the high court declared that the age limit rule would not be applicable to the temple priests and restored the hereditary priesthood, the TTD has not been taking the forcibly retired priests back into service,” he pointed out.
He alleged that the TTD authorities appeared to be still following the orders of Chandrababu Naidu.
“They are not even caring the instructions of chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy,” Deekshitulu said.
