Tamil Nadu Minister of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments PK Sekar Babu has become the talk of the town after he broke the discrimination that was prevailed in temples over offering free food to the people. The visual of the minister eating the free food along with a woman of the Narikurava community has been going viral on social media, which garnered more commendations and respect from across and beyond the state.
As the minister had written a historical precedent, let's take a look at what had driven him to end the discrimination. A video of a woman named Ashwini had gone rampant a few days ago. Ashwini belongs to the Narikurava community at Mamallapuram on the outskirts of Chennai. In the video, Ashwini was angry and distressed and asked why she and others from her community were refused to have 'Annadhanam', the free food, served at a temple in Mamallapuram.
Ashwini is a native of Pooncheri village in Mamallapuram and she and her community were denied to have such free food at the temple that sits on her native land. She belongs to a community that would sell beads and jewellery to win bread. In the video, Ashwini said that she and her members of the community were waiting in line for food at the temple. When they sat for the food on the second round, a man from the temple rushed to them and asked them to leave.
He said that he will give whatever is leftover and asked them to wait outside the temple. Ashwini further said, "I had asked him if this was his wedding to give us leftover food. This was a temple scheme to feed the poor set up by the state government." "These people had refused to give us a place because we are not educated. One day, my son will grow up. We will educate them and then we will see how long they can go on without changing", Ashwini adds.
Her video had gone viral on social media and quickly drawn the attention of the people and after it went to the notice of Chief Minister MK Stalin, his office had directed the matter to Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Minister PK Sekar Babu. According to reports, the Hindu Religious department had asked its Joint Commissioner of Kancheepuram unit, P Jayaraman to trace Ashwini.
After tracing her, the Minister himself ate lunch with Ashwini on Friday - October 29 at the same temple where Ashwini and her community members were denied free food. The Commissioner of the Hindu Religious department, Thiruporur MLA Balaji, and the Narikurava community members ate food and the video of the minister eating food by ending the discrimination had earned a huge reception and commendation and his move was tagged as effective governance.
Speaking to the media, Sekar Babu said that when he visited the temple, he wanted to meet Ashwini. He stated that she was not able to believe what had happened and she also wished to meet and thank Chief Minister MK Stalin. The Minister had promised to personally thank CM MK Stalin on her behalf. The Hindu Religious department had then distributed saris and dhotis to everyone who took part in the Annadhanam and the minister had also assured the Narikurava community to look into their issues in the state. It must be noted that the Annadhanam scheme, which offers free food at temples to the poor, was launched by the DMK government and is currently active in 754 across Tamil Nadu.
— Deva (@DevaTRZ) October 29, 2021
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