Sudden decline of pilgrims seen from State for Tirupati trip

Bengaluru: Afterthe sacrilegious rather sinful revelations about the use of animal fat and fish oil in the making of the iconic Prasadam laddus of Tirupati temple, there has been a sudden decline in the devotees booking for darshan from Karnataka. According to the normal flow of pilgrims, Karnataka religious tourism companies operating roundabout trips from Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubli, Dharwad, Belagavi, and other two-tier cities send at least 2000 loads full of buses every day for more than 20-25 days every month, Many of the companies are now either faced with refunds or buses are going empty or with minimum occupancy.

According to coordinators of the tours, over 8,000 people have dropped out per day and are not keen on visiting the temple despite having booked for Darshan of Lord Venkateshwara from Karnataka. “We are shocked at the developments at our favourite temples, How can the government there do such an outrageous thing as adding animal fat, do they not know that it is a Brahmin temple visited by all sects of society irrespective of caste, creed, and religion?” said Vedavyasa Acharya of Malleshwaram in Bengaluru, who goes to Tirupati every year with family and deposits the ‘Hundi’ collected at his home and that of his siblings to the temple.

His younger brother Srinvasa Acharya said “I did not believe when people told me that the temple management had done so many improprieties in the past, like diverting the Hundi collection to the development of mosques and churches and even allegedly consecrating a structure that looks similar to a cross inside the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. But adding animal fat and fish oil to the temple was the limit, and now we know that the government functionaries were making all-out efforts to desecrate our temple and faith” said Srinivasa Acharya. “I or any of my family members will never go there” both brothers said emphatically.

Rohini Balilthaya of Udupi who is a religious influencer said “In my MahilaMandali there are about 30 women who regularly deposit anything from Rs. 10 to 50 every day into a box and once a year they put it together and go in a group to Tirupati and deposit the amount into the Hundi of Thimappa. In our weekly meeting of the Mandali, some of the members have expressed that they will not be able to continue this tradition, and they are dismantling the Hundi system in their families.”.

There are a number of families in Karnataka that have been doing this regularly for over two generations. A septuagenarian Vedic scholar of Mysuru Vishnu Sharma was aghast at what he termed as the colossal betrayal of the Hindu faith by the Jagan Reddy government. “We knew his father, late Samuel Rajashekar Reddy very well. Despite being a Christian, he never tried to push his agenda in Tirupati temple. I still cannot believe that the Andhra Pradesh government headed by Jagan Reddy could do this to us. Like me, many of us have not only consumed the Tirupati laddu but also distributed it to our relatives and friends, I do not know the ways for atonement for this crime I have committed,” He lamented.

One of the transport operators from Mangaluru, Manjunath Shetty, doled out statistics :’In the last three days there had been no bookings for the roundabout tour: Mangaluru-Bengaluru-Tirupati-Bengaluru-Mangaluru. For Thursday and Friday, we had over 300 seats booked, many of those who booked did not turn up for the ride, and when the crew called them to state they must make it to the bus quickly, some of them even let out their anger on the crew. “I did know what went wrong! When I enquired, a crew showed me the video about the animal fat and fish oil-laced laddu. I called up my colleagues in Mysuru, Bengaluru, and Panaji, and they confirmed that they were also facing last-minute cancellations,” said Ishaque Ahmed, the tour operator.

Bus operators in Bengaluru who have invested a fortune in buying the sterling airconditioned fleet of buses depending on the Bengaluru-Tirupthi traffic are now crestfallen. We have to have at least 60 per cent occupancy in every trip, anything less than that the bank debt servicing, operational costs overheads, and salary of the crew will have to be borne by the operators to that extent.

When asked about the loss of traffic for KSRTC, the officials were tight lipped.

Likewise the wash up hotels on the way to Tirupati-Tirumala temples from Bengaluru are also feeling the heat.