P.R. Vishnu (23), a priest working under the Tiruvitamcoor Devaswom Board, has resigned from his duties, reportedly on February 14, alleging caste harassment while working at the temple by board officials and threats from CPM union leaders, and being told to stay away from reporting the wrongs happening at the temples. He was appointed as a priest to the Tiruvitamcoor Devaswom Board three months earlier and belongs to the SC community.
Vishnu’s letter reportedly reads as: “I realised that it was extremely dangerous for someone like me, a Scheduled Caste member, especially as someone who does not yield to the whims and injustices of officials and union leaders, to work under the Devaswom Board. I resigned because there is no other option.”
Earlier, Vishnu suffered caste harassment while he was working in a nearby Devaswom Board Devi temple at Tathappally. He was a muttushanthi (substitute priest). During those days, he had to suffer severe caste harassment. One ‘devotee’ had paid for the vazhipadu (offering) when the actual Brahmin priest was in charge.
But he came to get it done when Vishnu was the muttushanthi. The man insulted him by calling his caste name and said he would have avoided the vazhipadu if Vishnu was the muttushanthi. Such an insult hurt him a lot. He complained before the Deputy Superintendent of Police.
During the aforementioned complaint, he got the Devaswom Board appointment at Vaaturakkavu Devi Temple under the Parur Group. After working there for three months, he resigned from the job. It was prompted by the Parur Devaswom Assistant Commissioner’s alleged threat that he would not be able to work peacefully if he did not withdraw the complaint he had filed with the police against the caste harassment he suffered at the Tathappally temple.
There are reports that Vishnu had mentioned the state leader of the Left wing of the Devaswom Board in his complaint.
Vishnu joined the job at Vaaturakkavu Devi Temple on November 7. But the revenge and threats had already begun even before that. Two fake complaints had been filed when the advice memo for Vishnu was received by him, but it was found that both bore fake addresses. The idea was to stall Vishnu’s appointment. Vishnu has reportedly mentioned this in his resignation letter.
In November 2024, the former chairman of the temple advisory committee was arrested in a case of caste-based attacks on Vishnu while he was performing pooja at the Tathappally Bhagavathy temple as a muttushanthi.
On November 7, 2025, when Vishnu took charge at the Vaaturakkavu temple, he reported that two of the necklaces in the Tiruvabharanam (ornaments for the deity) were counterfeit gold. The Devaswom filed a complaint at the Alangad police station but later withdrew it.
On January 30, 2026, Vishnu filed a complaint before the Deputy Superintendent of Police and the Devaswom Board President and the Commissioner against the threat of the Devaswom Assistant Commissioner of Paravur that he would not give Vishnu peaceful days if he did not withdraw the complaint against the man who insulted him at the Tathappally temple.
The Vishnu episode is a classical example of the plight of the scheduled caste priests under the CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) rule; they are the self-styled saviours of the weaker sections. They always blame BJP and RSS as the enemies of dalits and women. They conveniently forget how the BJP treats people from Scheduled caste and weaker sections of society. They shut their eyes to the election of SC’s and women to crucial and significant positions.
