Holy ire as YSR revives the Tirupati ropeway plan

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If Thou Art So Inclined

Holy ire as YSR revives the Tirupati ropeway plan

MADHAVI TATA

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Faith may be a short and simple word. But it is what drives 50,000-odd

pilgrims to the Lord Venkateswara temple at Tirumala every day.

It is also what makes the temple the richest in the country, with an annual

budget of Rs 630 crore, fixed assets of Rs 10,000 crore and jewellery worth Rs

5,000 crore

 

Dogmas Versus Dudes

 

 

 

inside its precincts.

 

So it wasn't surprising that the globalisation-friendly Chandrababu Naidu

government drew up ambitious plans to develop Tirupati as a tourist spot as

well. The project included a religious theme park (Rs 20 crore), multiplex

shopping complex (Rs 16 crore), star hotels and a Rs 91-crore ropeway from

Alipiri to Tirumala. The ropeway would waft pilgrims to the hillock while

allowing them to take in the scenic sight below. In 2002, the Tirumala Tirupati

Devasthanams (TTD), which runs the temple, allotted Rs 117 acres at Alipiri,

the foothills of the Tirumala, to the state's tourism development corporation

(APTDC) for the scheme.

 

However, there was strident opposition from the Agama Advisory Committee

(panel of priests and experts who have the say over the temple's traditions)

and prominent pontiffs like Chinna Jeer Swamy and Kanchi seer Jayendra

Saraswati, forcing Naidu to cancel the project a year later.

 

For the priests, a cable car for pilgrims up to the temple is like

gliding above the lord's head.

 

 

The land was then returned to the TTD.

 

However, two weeks ago, chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy gave the

go-ahead to the ropeway and asked the APTDC to take up the scheme in a

time-bound manner. He opines that the cable car will reduce pollution

and curtail accidents on the ghat road. But horrified local Agama advisors

regard this as a deadly sin. They believe that the 6.3-km cablecar ropeway to

Tirumala will violate the age-old shastras and traditions. According to them,

the ropeway would disturb meditating deities, saints and spirits present among

the Seshachalam hills in invisible form.

 

"The hill on which the temple stands is Vishnu swaroopam (Lord Vishnu's

form). To travel over the Lord's head is a cardinal sin," says C.

Rayabhattacharyulu, an Agama expert. He adds that if the government insists on

going ahead with the project, several powerful religious bodies would move

court to obtain a stay order to ensure there's no violation of the holy

airspace.

 

Another open opponent of the project is the Vaikhanasa Peetham, a powerful

religious institution at Tirupati. G. Prabhakaracharyulu, in charge of the

peetham at Tirumala, says the devotees come for the Lord's darshan with purity

of thought. "The government is trying to convert a holy place into a picnic

spot. I mean, do you really want to see an imax theatre here?"

 

Interestingly, the temple's chief priest Ramana Deekshitulu, who also heads

the Agama Advisory Committee, is reluctant to voice an opinion. "We need to

examine the Agama shastras, puranas and dharma shastras and then brief the

TTD," he says. Asked how the same board that objected to the cable car in 2003

could possibly okay it now, Deekshitulu says two members had opposed it then.

"But the committee will examine it afresh. Whatever decision is made will be

collective."

 

Meanwhile, APTDC chairman and managing director J. Raymond Peter says the

visitors' zone project is an important part of the government's plan to develop

Tirupati into an A-class tourist destination. The cable car, says Peter, won't

fly over the temple but would transport 40,000 pilgrims every day to its base.

Peter, who is back in India after a five-year stint with the World Bank in the

US, feels the AP government should follow the American method of utilising the

existing infrastructure of a place and developing it into a tourist

destination. "Providing hotels, parks or a ropeway at Alipiri will induce

tourists going to Tirupati to stay back longer. Think of the employment this

would generate," says Peter.As the arguments continue, the gap between local

religious sentiments and American-inspired mass tourism grows ever

wider—perhaps too wide for the ropeway to bridge.

 

 

 

 

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