Politicians and political parties of our country never fail to surprise us. They consider themselves gods and goddesses and the voters their bhakts (followers). In the last 68 years of our independence, they have rarely given us chance to feel proud of them, but never miss any chance to make our heads hang in shame for electing them. They enjoy a lavish life-style on taxpayers’ money, but when it comes to working for the poor, they don’t show the same enthusiasm.
The ruling Telugu Desam Party of Andhra Pradesh is planning to construct a series of temples across Andhra Pradesh with party chief and state Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu as their main deity. A larger than life idol of Chandrababu Naidu, will be installed in the temple to be built on the banks of river Krishna at Harishchandrapuram in Amaravati – the new Capital Region of the state. The proposed temple will be on the government land and probably funded by taxpayers’ money.
Satish Babu, Vice-President of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Tullur mandal, told Firstpost that they have not finalised the maker of the idol yet. “We want to hire the best makers. Mostly, the order will be placed with statue makers in Tenali. We will do it, once we commence the construction,” he said. As regards the temple rituals, he said they would be no different from five other temples in the village. He is considering appointing a priest (pujari) for this. To a query on whether he proposed to have rituals like ‘Ashtottharam, Sasharsanama, Abhishekam’ for Chandrababu, Satish said nothing had been planned yet. But pundits will be consulted before drawing up the rituals and procedures. Is it all to be paid for using the taxpayers’ money?
It is not for the first time that temples are being built for the politicians: Sonia Gandhi, Narendra Modi, Mayawati, NT Rama Rao, YS Rajasekhara Reddy are a few to be named. Especially in the south, it is a common practice to have temples of celebrities and politicians. Fans have temples even of those who are accused of rape, murder and corruption charges. The whole idea of idolizing people who are incompetent and morally bankrupt, that, too, by using the taxpeyers’ hard-earned income, shows how stupid the voters are!
