In light of reports that the Tamil Nadu government had decided to prohibit live broadcasting of the “pran pratishtha” event at the new Ram temple on January 22, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unleashed a barrage of criticism on the state on Sunday. Sitharaman shared a newspaper article alleging that the government had given oral orders to stop special pujas and stop providing free meals in temples in honour of Ram. She described this as a “anti-Hindu” move.
Watching the live broadcast of the Ayodhya Ram Mandir events on January 22–24 has been prohibited by the TN government. There are more than 200 Shri Ram temples in Tamil Nadu. No puja, bhajan, prasadam, or annadanam performed in the name of Shri Ram is permitted at temples overseen by HR&CE. The police are also preventing privately owned temples from hosting gatherings. They’re threatening to take off pandals, according to the organisers. Strongly denounce this vile, anti-Hindu behaviour, Sitharaman wrote on X.
According to the Union Minister, there are threats made against persons in the state who organise bhajans, feed the underprivileged, or celebrate special occasions with sweets. It is advised to cable TV operators that there may be a power outage during the live broadcast. She said, “This is the anti-Hindu campaign of DMK, a partner in the INDI Alliance.
However, the Tamil Nadu government took issue with the Union Minister’s claims that the BJP was attempting to “divert attention” from the Salem, Tamil Nadu, DMK youth Congress.
The Tamil Nadu government is “unofficially claiming law and order issues to justify the live telecast ban,” according to Nirmala Sitharaman.
A phoney and false story! The day of the Ayodhya ruling saw no L&O problems. Not in any region of the nation, not even on the day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi lay the foundation. The anti-Hindu DMK has been shaken by the public outcry and the voluntary involvement of people in TN’s #ShriRam celebrations, the minister stated.
The DMK administration refuted the newspaper claim, referring to it as a “motivated report to bring disrepute to the state government. The administration declared it would prosecute the journal.
