– TS Venkatesan
In Tamil Nadu temples for cine stars is quite common. The Dravidians parties, always makes tall claim that Tamil Nadu is revolutionary and atheist EVR Periyar’s soil, who stood against idolatry. It is an irony that his followers had installed statues in Tamil Nadu for him at each and every nook and corner. Not only Periyar but also for Anna, MGR, Jayalalithaa, Rajiv Gandhi, Nehru, Kamaraji, M Karunanidhi, actor Sivaji Ganesan and many others. But building a temple for a leader who is not the son of the soil is the talk of the state. To show his gratitude to Prime Minister Modi for the slew of welfare measures, a farmer has dedicated a temple for him and worshipping him like a god.
P Sankar a farmer in his 50’s has recently dedicated a temple at his farm in Erakudi village near Tiruchirappalli district. Sankar says that temple was to show his love and affection for PM Modi and to show his gratitude to him. He said that the work to build a temple for Ayya (referring PM Modi) started eight months ago. But I could not complete it immediately due to financial constraints. Now the temple was inaugurated last week.
The 8 x 8 feet RC tiled roof temple is built at a cost of Rs 1.2 lakh and the Modi statue has been adorned with garlands and flowers. The bust size idol has a tilak on the forehead. Modi is in a pink kurta and a blue shawl. With specks on his face, the idol has his trademark white beard and hairstyle. On the entrance a traditional ‘kolam’ (rangoli) greets the people. On both sides of the idol, a traditional lamp is placed. On the walls hung pictures of deities, Mahatma Gandhi, former TN Chief Ministers K Kamaraj, M G Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa, Home Minister Amit Shah and Tamil Nadu present CM Edapadi K Palaniswami.
Shankar, who worked in Gulf countries earlier said “I received Rs 2,000 (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi) scheme for farmers, gas (Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana) and toilet (Individual Household Latrine Scheme) facilities. “I like him for his personality. I have been keenly observing him for a long time. I was impressed by this and planned to build a temple for him to show my gratitude. ” Shankar is not a BJP cadre. “ But if the party approaches me, I will become its member” says sankar.
Shankar, who is also the priest, performs ‘aarti’ every day. He likes to perform a pucca Kumbabishekam (consecration) for the Modi temple. ” When the Prime Minister was in Mahabalipuram for an informal summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in last October, I could not meet him. But I am happy to see his cavalcade from a distance and have a glimpse of him.
Sr. Journalist Sridharan said in the last Lok Sabha elections, BJP could not win even a single seat due to the propaganda carried out by the DMK led alliance which included MDMK, Left, Congress, Muslim and Christian outfits, VCK etc.and had projected Modi as a villain and did nothing for the Tamils and to the state . Modi and BJP were shown as completely negative and poor light. They were carried away by their promise of loan waiver, monthly cash allowance. But after the poll people slowly started to realise their follies. The farmer is one among them. He went out of the way to build a temple for the love of PM”, he says.
Tamil Nadu is not new to such temples being built for people they admire. A fan of actress Kushboo had built a temple for her in Trichy (one of the first to be erected by fans for any Tamil film personality). Temples were also built for MGR (in Chennai), actress Namitha (in Tirunelveli). In other parts of the country, temples have been built for iconic actor Amitabh Bachchan (in Kolkata), Sonia Gandhi (in Telangana) and for Modi again (in Rajkot) by their fans and followers.
