BENGALURU:Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, a self-declared agnostic, has just announced that he is a theist. The man who took pride in showing an aversion for religious rituals and wanted to introduce a bill banning superstitions and black magic is busy offering prayers to get a divine bailout from the alleged 541 acres land denotification scam.
On January 27, he along with wife Parvathi Siddaramaiah performed a special puja to Lord Venkateshwara at Tirumala Hills at Tirupati. Popularly known as ‘Mysuru Puje’, it is the first puja of the day which is performed in Tirupati at 3.30 am daily.
The CM’s visit to Tirupati comes in the wake of a raging political controversy over the Arkavathy Layout land denotification issue that may cost him his job, and the growing dissidence against him within the party. The BJP is planning to petition Governor Vazubhai Vala later next week for prosecuting Siddaramaiah. He was accompanied by his confidant, Cooperation Minister H S Mahadeva Prasad.
He had also offered a special puja at a temple in his native Siddaramana Hundi village in Mysuru, reportedly to ward off the scare of Arkavathy denotification.
His visit was criticised by his former mentor-turned-rival, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda. “He must have gone there to wash off his sins after the de notification muck,” remarked Gowda. Siddaramaiah responded to Gowda’s jibe saying, “I believe in God but not in rituals and black magic.”
The CM even tried to down play the issue stating that he has been visiting the temple around the beginning of every New Year coinciding with his wedding anniversary.
History reveals that superstition has been a popular belief among the politicians in Karnataka. On the eve of the trust vote on October 10, 2010, there surfaced a voodoo doll—a lemon with nails pierced into it, chopped chicken head, eggs, blood, vermillion, threads, strewn all over within the Vidhana Soudha premises.
Though none came forward to claim who did this, fingers were pointed at two families—the then Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa and Deve Gowda. As expected, both denied it. Then what followed was even more ridiculous. Yeddyurappa had directed the police to close all gates, except a few, purportedly acting on an advice from his astrologers. There is a long list of people who are said to have used wizardry. Former CMs D Devraj Urs is said to have been the first to indulge in such acts when he fell apart with Indira Gandhi in the late 1970s.