Stung by angry devotees who had to wait in line while the Bachchan family got exclusive darshan at Tirupati, the temple's governing board came up with new rules on Thursday – no VIP treatment for ‘non-protocol’ celebrities like actors, business tycoons and sportspersons.
The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Board has has decided that there will be no “fast-tracking” for celebrities and so the Bachchans, Ambanis, Vijay Mallya, Sachin Tendulkar and others in the pilgrim powerlist will have to fall into line.
This comes after protests from devotees that last Sunday the Bachchan family along with newlyweds Abhishek and Aishwarya got VIP treatment at the shrine and were allowed to conduct a 20 minute puja while thousands of devotees waited in the sun for over an hour.
The only good news for celebrities is that the temple authorities will provide security to them. So, the new Mrs Bachchan need not worry about getting mobbed.
But should VIPs be provided special treatment at places of worship?
That is the question of the day on CNN-IBN show Face The Nation conducted by Sagarika Ghosh.
On the panel of experts to discuss the issue threadbare were Chairman of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Board B Karunakara Reddy, political scientist Chandrabhan Prasad and ad filmmaker Prahlad Kakkar.
After the temple board’s decision on Thursday, devotees are heaving a sigh of relief for not having to wait any longer in serpentine queues for a darshan while celebrities get their way around.
But the issue of discrimination between VIPs and non-VIPs in temples has been on for ages in this country.
Agreeing with the argument, Karunakara said, “God should be open for all. What happened on April 22 was wrong.
That’s why we have taken a decision that there should not be any discrimination between VIPs and the common man. We are also conducting an inquiry into the matter. Further more, there won’t be any discrimination for VIPs pilgrims.
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But celebrities have the biggest security threat and that warrants them to get special privileges. They also are the biggest contributors and this money is usually used for facilities like water supply for the pilgrims. Incidentally, Amitabh Bachcahn is one of the biggest contributors to the Tirupati temple.
Last year alone he donated Rs 51 lakh to the shrine.
Walking the tightrope Kakkar argued, “What it really is all about is public safety. And it is about the safety of the people who are actually going for a darshan.
Now you have Amitabh Bachchan with his family in one place and it becomes a huge security problem. If you don’t cordon off the area it’s going to create a pandemonium and I don’t know whether they might get injured but definitely a lot of women and children who are in queue are going to get pushed around.
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