VIJAYAWADA: Endowments Minister Kottu Satyanarayana and I&PR Minister Chelluboyina Srinivasa Venugopalakrishna lashed out at Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan a day after he accused Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy of showing disrespect to Hindu dharma and meddling with religious matters.
Speaking to reporters in Draksharamam on Saturday, the YSRC leaders said Pawan was unfit to speak on such matters. Referring to one of the JSP chief’s previous speeches, where he had said that his father used to light a cigarette from the lamp (diya) that his mother would use to perform puja, Kottu Satyanarayana demanded to know how the actor-politician could even speak about morals and ethics.
“Pawan, who has no respect for the Hindu belief system, has no moral right to speak about Dharma or about our Chief Minister, who follows it,” the deputy Chief Minister asserted.
Further, he said, “Pawan should understand that his ‘foster father’ (referring to Chandrababu Naidu) was the person who demolished temples. He should refrain from being a paid artist reading Naidu’s scripts.”
The endowments minister dismissed Pawan’s allegations on the structure of priests at the Annavaram temple and pointed out that officials took stern action against a man who had entered the temple as a fake priest through middlemen. “Now, the same fake priest is trying to gain entry into the temple through Pawan Kalyan,” he alleged.
Reiterating that the government is committed to the protection and propagation of Hindu Dharma and the development of temples across the State, Kottu Satyanarayana said they are taking all measures to ensure rituals in the temple are being performed as per scriptures.
“Our government has initiated measures to ensure there are no middlemen at the Annavaram temple, so devotees can perform marriage rituals without getting exploited by touts.”
“Pawan has been spewing lies while addressing the public from atop his campaign vehicle that is named after Goddess Vaarahi,” the minister said. He mocked the JSP chief for not being able to win even as a ward member.
Later, Chellaboina Venugopala Krishna remarked that people are now seeing the real face of Pawan Kalyan, who is another follower of Chandrababu Naidu.