New Delhi: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday found herself in a bind after posting several controversial tweets on X, that were countered strongly by the Tamil Nadu state government. She put out clippings from Dinamalar, reports The Deccan Herald, “that screamed ‘Ban’ alleging that the DMK dispensation has banned watching live telecasts of the Pran Pratishtha” of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on Monday.
The newspaper article she shared alleged “oral orders have been issued to temple authorities not to allow any pooja in the name of Lord Ram”.
The state government issued a strong statement that cornered the Union minister, as it vehemently denied the newspaper’s claims, calling it as an attempt to “bring disrepute” to the DMK government.
“The act of Dinamalar which is aimed at creating confusion among the people and instigating hatred against the government is highly condemnable,” an official statement said, also that that necessary legal action will be taken against the propagation of falsehoods as news.
Sitharaman had gone as far as to allege that in HR & CE managed temples, no pooja/bhajan /prasadam/annadanam in the name of Shri Ram is allowed. “Police are stopping privately held temples from organising events. They are threatening organisers that they will rip off pandals. Strongly condemn this anti-Hindu, hateful action,” her post said.
Just last month, the finance minister had drawn ire from her state counterpart for “arrogance”. Tamil Nadu finance minister Thangam Thennarasu said on December 23, 2023 that Sitharaman had insulted the people of the state by indicating in an “arrogant” language that the Centre would not meet the state’s twin demands of declaring the recent floods as a ‘calamity of severe nature’ and allocating additional funds of Rs 21,692 crore towards relief.
Responding to her comments, made at a media interaction in Delhi, he said Sitharaman had only exposed her “lack of compassion” for Tamil Nadu by thinking that she was being critical of chief minister M.K. Stalin. He clarified that the state had not requested the Centre to declare the floods a “national disaster”, but as a “calamity of a severe nature”, reported The Hindu.
On Monday morning, the Supreme Court heard a petition filed by Tamil Nadu BJP members seeking permission to live stream the pran patishtha ceremony on LED screens. The government told the court in response that there is no ban on such screenings.
