Dr A V Ramana Deekshitulu, who was reappointed as head priest of Lord Venkateshwara Swamy temple in Tirumala in April last, continues to have complaints against the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), which manages the country’s richest temple.
On Thursday, Deekshitulu lodged a complaint with chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy expressing his dissatisfaction over the ill-treatment meted out to him from the TTD administration. However, the complaint was in the form of a tweet, tagging the chief minister.
In the tweet, the TTD chief priest said: “@ysjagan, God’s blessings on you and your rule plenty of rains full water bodies and bountiful agriculture. On your command TTD issued orders April 2nd. We happy. But admin is preventing us to do puja to God. We driven to courts. . Pl step in to set issues and admin in proper place (sic).”
Apparently, Deekshitulu wants to bring to the notice of Jagan that despite getting the orders for his reinstatement as the chief priest, he was not being allowed to perform pujas and other regular sevas in the temple. So, he wants the chief minister to intervene and get the issue sorted out.
It may be mentioned that in May 2018, the then newly formed TTD trust board unanimously resolved to ask all Archakas who had crossed 65 years of age retire from the temple services.
Ramana Deekshitulu was also forced to retire, within a day of he making serious allegations of corruption in the temple administration.
Following this decision, chief priest Ramana Deekshitulu and three other priests Narasimha Deekshitulu, Srinivasa Murthy Deekshitulu and Narayana Deekshitulu, retired from service.
On April 2, the TTD issued orders, following the instructions from the state endowments department, stating that all those who were forced to retire in May 2018 (during the previous regime of Telugu Desam Party) would be taken back into the temple.
But Deekshitulu’s appointment caught into a legal wrangle, with another chief priest of the Tirumala temple Venugopala Deekshitulu filing a petition in the state high court challenging the former’s appointment.
As per the hereditary priest convention, the chief priest has to be from the Gollapalli family. Venugopala Deekshitulu brought to the notice of the high court that he was also from Gollapalli family and as per the rules, he should be continued as the chief priest.
Though Ramana Deekshitulu is also from the same family, his appointment would not be legal or constitutional as it was already given to Venugopala Deekshitulu. As such, there cannot be two chief priests for the temple.
The issue is still in court.