Chennai, June 25: Hindu religious leaders belonging to the RSS and Hindu Munani and the BJP have demanded that the famous Sri Ramanathasamy temple in the pilgrim town of Rameswaram be “cleansed” following the visit of DMK MLA Hasan Ali. Posters have appeared across the town condemning the legislator’s visit to the temple and demanding that the authorities perform the parikara (atonement) pooja or “purification ceremony”.

The demand comes in the wake of the controversial move by the Guruvayur temple in Kerala in conducting a purification ceremony after Union Minister Vayalar Ravi performed the choroonu (first feeding of rice) for his grandson in the temple. The temple priests, claiming that Ravi’s wife was a Christian, performed the purification ceremony.

Hasan Ali, the Ramanathapuram MLA belonging to the DMK, said he had accompanied a friend from the US on June 11 to the temple along with Ravichandra Ramavanni, DCC president and a descendant of the Ramanathapuram royal family. “I have been playing inside the temple premises since I was seven or eight years old. Even last year after my victory in the May Assembly election, the temple priests greeted me with a parivattam (silk turban). The BJP is only trying to make political mileage out of my visit,” Hasan told The Indian Express.

On June 14, posters appeared across the walls of Rameswaram condemning Hasan’s visit and demanding the punniya vasanam. Rani Bhanumathi Nachiar, the chairperson of the Ramanathasamy Temple Devosthanam Trust said: “No such pooja has been conducted so far and there is no need for it either.”

However, Kuppu Ram, the RSS Ramanathapuram district president, is adamant, demanding that the temple authorities conduct the pooja immediately “to cleanse” the premises. “Persons from other community cannot enter the garba graham. This is the rule laid down by the Government and there is a board which says so inside the temple premises. While the Nepal Royal family is permitted to visit the sanctum sanctorum, a purification ceremony by splashing saffron water in the temple premises is always conducted after their visit. President Kalam always respected Hindu sentiments by not entering the sanctum sanctorum,” he said.