Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Tamil Nadu face off over consecration telecast

New Delhi, January 21

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and the Tamil Nadu Government engaged in a war of words on social media platform X after the former accused the MK Stalin-led DMK government of barring live streaming of the Ayodhya Ram Mandir inauguration across temples in the state.

“The Tamil Nadu Government has banned watching live telecast of Ayodha Ram Mandir programmes of January 22. In TN, there are over 200 temples for Shri Ram. In HR & CE-managed temples, no puja/bhajan/prasadam/annadanam in the name of Shri Ram is allowed. The police are stopping privately held temples also from organising events. They are threatening organisers that they will rip off pandals. Strongly condemn this anti-Hindu, hateful action,” Sitharaman said on X, tagging a regional newspaper report which the state government rejected as false and malicious.

PK Sekar Babu, Minister Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments, Tamil Nadu, strongly condemned what he called “false information in an attempt to divert people’s attention from the DMK Youth Conference in Salem”.

Babu said the department “has not imposed any limitations on devotees’ freedom to offer food, conduct ‘puja’ in the name of Shri Rama or provide prasad in Tamil Nadu temples”.

“It is unfortunate that people in office, like Union Finance Minister, and others, are purposely propagating erroneous information,” he added.