The last week’s visit of Bharatiya Janata Party national president Amit Shah to Lord Venkateshwara Swamy temple at Tirumala seems to have cost temple head priest A V Ramana Deekshitulu his post.
Shah visited the Tirumala temple soon after the completion of campaigning in Karnataka elections. He was accorded customary treatment by Ramana Deekshitulu.
“As the Chief Priest of the temple, I always felt it was my duty to receive VVIPs and important donors. I did the same in the case of Amit Shah and this perhaps might be not to the liking of the Telugu Desam Party government,” he said.
He also said he always had special affection for chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu who studied with him on the SV University campus in Tirupati.
“I took my Ph.D in Molecular Biology and sacrificed lucrative foreign offers to stay back to serve the God. Whenever Naidu visited the temple, I always spent time with him and arranged ‘Aaseervachanam’ (blessings) to him at the Ranganayaka mandapam,” he recalled.
Deekshitulu said he was aware of the proposal to enforce retirement for temple priests for quite some time.
“The issue had been hanging fire for the past six months. But it was unfair to deprive the hereditary priests the right to serve the temple without reason,” he felt adding that he would take legal course.
