Preparations are on for the visit of President Pranab Mukherjee to Sri Krishna Mutt/Temple at Udupi on Sunday amid doubts on whether Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will accompany him here.
Though Mr. Siddaramaiah has visited Udupi city twice after becoming the Chief Minister, and several times earlier, he has never visited the Sri Krishna Mutt/Temple.
Sources in the Chief Minister’s secretariat told The Hindu that “as of now” there is no scheduled programme of the Chief Minister visiting the mutt.
Saint Kanakadasa
This is being linked to the decade-old controversy surrounding the demolition of Kanaka Gopura in Udupi. In 2004, the mutt/temple decided to bring down the old Gopura built in 1910-12 in the name of Bhakti saint Kanakadasa, who is also seen as an icon of the OBC Kuruba community to which Mr. Siddaramaiah belongs.
The mutt/temple said that it was necessary since the structure was dilapidated, but OBC groups saw this as an insult to a saint revered by them. Mr. Siddaramaiah, who was Deputy Chief Minister in N. Dharam Singh’s Congress-JD(S) coalition government, had objected to the demolition of the Kanaka Gopura, and strongly argued for the government taking over the Krishna mutt.
According to senior Congress leader of Udupi B. Narasimhamurthy, though Mr. Siddaramaiah visited Udupi twice after assuming office, he did not visit Krishna mutt. Sources in KPCC confirm that Mr. Siddaramaiah has not visited the famous mutt after 2004.
A couple of days ago, the seer told mediapersons that he had invited Mr. Siddaramaiah through his emissaries to come along with Mr. Mukherjee to the mutt/temple, but the latter had not responded. Pramod Madhwaraj, Minister of State for Fisheries, Youth Empowerment and Sports, had also spoken a few times of getting Mr. Siddaramaiah to visit the mutt/temple.
However, some are of the opinion that the issue of Mr. Siddaramaiah not visiting the mutt is being blown out of proportion by vested interests.
A senior official said that since it is a private visit of the president to the mutt, it will not attract the provisions of protocol.
Noted writer G. Rajashekar said that in the present case, Mr. Siddaramaiah did not have a scheduled programme to visit the temple. “Had he cancelled a scheduled programme, something could have been read into it,” he said. It is not obligatory for a politician to visit a place of worship, he added.
