TTD officials dismiss Bhumana's accusations
2
Tirupati: Dismissing the accusations levelled by its former chairman Bhumana Karunakar Reddy,
Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams
reiterated that several reforms were introduced by the temple body in the last one year to uphold the sanctity and spiritual ambience of the hill town.
Bhumana alleged that TTD was planning to end Veda Parayanam at the temple, which he said would be a sacrilege of the highest order.
"A senior temple official recently called Veda Parayanam a waste of time. It is unfortunate that those who are supposed to uphold the sanctity of the temple are degenerating the significance of the Vedas," the former TTD chairman alleged.
He further claimed that Tirumala temple priests were being subjected to hardships and humiliation and are being forced to undergo physical frisking, a practice which never existed in the past, adding that it's the duty of TTD to uphold the dignity of priests.
Ridiculing TTD's proposed plans to take the help of artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce the waiting time for devotees, he said the temple body is now artificially keeping the outside queue lines empty by preventing devotees from even entering the queue lines.
"The temple trust was formed to facilitate darshan for visiting devotees, not to prevent or turn them away," the veteran YSRCP leader alleged.
Responding to the accusations, TTD said Bhumana's accusations about plans to stop Veda Parayanam are "completely baseless". .
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The essay further states, 'The real facts of the destruction wreaked in India by Muslim invaders and some Christian missionaries must be kept outside textbooks and curricula, since they contradict the 'tolerant' and 'liberating' image that Islam and Christianity have been projecting for themselves.' In an opinion piece in The New Indian Express in May, 2018, Danino had highlighted how India's scientific and technological heritage—created by ancient civilisations—was being largely ignored. He had noted that standard Indian history textbooks offered nothing comparable, philosophy departments focused mostly on Western thought, and psychology departments overlooked the entire yogic understanding of the human being. In an op-ed in The Hindu in January 2015, he had argued that mainstream history books on classical India—such as D.N. Jha's Ancient India (1998, revised edition) and Romila Thapar's The Penguin History of Early India (2003)—are almost entirely silent on the country's scientific achievements. 'If our history books did justice to genuine, well-documented, and well-studied scientific and technological accomplishments,' he had written, 'there would be no room left for the fantasisers.' Some academics believe that Danino's thinking aligns with the current BJP-led government's ideological direction, which may have influenced his appointment as head of the social science textbooks panel. 'He always talks about taking pride in India's ancient history and civilisation—and since that's the government's core idea, he must have automatically become a good choice for them,' said a history professor from the University of Delhi, who wished to remain anonymous. Responding to such claims, Danino denied any political or ideological influence on his work, saying, 'Personally, I would not have accepted to work under any sort of political or ideological pressure.' Meanwhile, he has written several other books—Indian Culture and India's Future and Sri Aurobindo and India's Rebirth (editor, Rupa, 2018). He is a life member of various academic organisations, including the Indian Archaeological Society, the Indian History and Culture Society, the Indian Society for Prehistoric and Quaternary Studies, and the Indian Society for the History of Mathematics. He has also previously served as a member of the Indian Council of Historical Research. Danino emphasised that his educational activities were carried out independently of whichever party was in power. For example, in 2005, he had conducted a survey of 11,000 schoolchildren on the presence of cultural content in school education, and the NCERT had published a paper in 2008 summarising the findings. 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Even if he doesn't agree with my views sometimes, he would never dismiss them,' she said. Kutiyattam is a Sanskrit theatre believed to have originated in Kerala more than 2,000 years ago. Nair added that Danino is proud of Indian culture but doesn't glorify it blindly. 'I remember his lecture about two kinds of writers on India: those who glorify everything, and those who dismiss India entirely. He stressed the need to strike a balance.' Ridhhi Garg, Danino's student at IIT Gandhinagar from 2016 to 2018, said his Indian Knowledge Systems course sparked her interest in history despite her English background. 'He won't say anything without proper references or give flippant ideas. His inspiration from Shri Aurobindo shows in his values,' she told ThePrint. Garg said that these days, if someone is studying ancient history, people often assume you're aligned with a certain ideology. They're not even interested in what your actual work is about. 'I faced those same prejudices. My thesis under Danino sir was on Vedic-Puranic mythology–people assumed it was about Hindutva. But it was nothing of the sort,' she said. V.N. Prabhakar, an associate professor in the Humanities and Social Sciences department (jointly with Earth Sciences) at IIT Gandhinagar, has known Danino for over a decade. 'As an individual, I've found him to be one of the most well-read people, with a deep understanding of every aspect of Indian culture and civilisation. I used to attend his lectures and talks regularly. He's someone who genuinely appreciates diverse perspectives.' (Edited by Amrtansh Arora) Also Read: Charaka Samhita to Arthashastra, new NCERT Class 7 science book highlights India's scientific heritage
