Jagan: Attack on temples political ‘guerrilla warfare’

AP CM tells police to devise ways to thwart such attacks

The spate of attacks on temples and other Hindu religious structures in the state are a form of ‘guerrilla warfare’ by his political rivals with a hidden agenda to defame the state government and the police department, Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy said on Monday.

The chief minister asked the AP police to review these cases and come up with concrete ways to curtail such acts. He said about 20,000 temples in the state are provided with CC cameras to guard against such activities.

Delivering his address virtually after inauguration of ‘Ignite-2021’, the 63rd AP state police duty meet here, the chief minister expressed anguish over the opposition’s “false” accusations against the government vis-a-vis these series of attacks.

“The four-day police duty meet will have deliberations on ways to strengthen the department’s functioning. The meet should also discuss ways to curb the politically motivated attacks on Hindu temples and the lies that are being spread on social media to defame the government”, he said.

He wondered how such attacks on temples that were not under the control of the endowments and located inside a forest or on the hilltop could be attributed to the government or projected as governmental failure. “Most of the attacks took place in temples under the control of Telugu Desam leaders,” he said.

Listing nine such cases in the state, Jagan said, “Malicious acts at Guntur’s Durga temple occurred ahead of the launch of ‘Nadu Nedu’.

Vandalization of statues in Pitapuram was done ahead of launch of the price stabilization scheme for farmers and attacks on statues in Rompicherla coincided with the launch of the Disha police station in Rajahmundry”.

The Chief Minister also spoke about damage to a statue in Naidupeta ahead of the launch of the YSR Jalakala programme. “Rival forces also projected the Purnakumbham light set on Tirumala temple as a ‘Cross’, when we launched distribution of 30 lakh house site pattas for the poor. When I was set to visit Vizianagaram district, they destroyed a statue 10km away from that place”, he said.

Jagan said all these attacks were carried out at night. He suspected these were attempts to defame the government and mislead the public every time a welfare scheme was launched.

He fumed at a section of the media for highlighting such “politically motivated” attacks and misleading the public.