Dy CM Pawan Kalyan: Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan is a member of an actor-politician family and released a shock statement on social media stating he is appalled by reports that animal fat has allegedly been mixed while preparing the sacred Tirumala Laddu Prasadam at the Tirumala Tirupati temple. Releasing an open post on the social media platform X, Kalyan condemned the incident and referred to it as a “stain on the Hindu race” and lashed out at what he termed as the “morally depraved tendencies of erstwhile kings who allowed such an impurity to occur”.
Dy CM Pawan Kalyan Expresses Deep Personal Pain Over Tirupati Laddu Controversy
Kalyan also shared his personal anguish when he said that it had really pained him that the shameless attempt to poison the prasad of Sri Tirupati Balaji Dham, which he described as the “center of our culture, faith, belief, and devotion,” had hurt him and betrayed his faith deeply. Here, he felt the most personal loss and violation of his spiritual self, declaring his plans of an eleven-day fast as a atonement for the incident.
Pawan Kalyan Vows 11-Day Fast to Atone for Tirupati Prasadam Scandal
Kalyan wrote on his social media platform: “I am deeply hurt on a personal level by the malicious attempts made to infuse impurity in the prasad of Sri Tirupati Balaji Dham, the center of our culture, faith, belief and devotion, and to tell you the truth, I feel cheated from within. I pray to Lord Venkateswara to give us and all Sanatanis strength in this moment of grief with his causeless grace. Right now, I am taking a vow to seek forgiveness from the Lord and am taking a vow to fast for eleven days. In the latter part of the eleven-day Atonement Initiation, on October 1 and 2, I will go to Tirupati and have a personal darshan of the Lord and beg for forgiveness and then my Atonement Initiation will be completed in front of the Lord.”
Kalyan’s sorrow has gradually flowered into a demand for establishing a national entity that will uphold the sanctity of the temples and Sanatana Dharma. He proposed that there be a “Sanatana Dharma Rakshana Board” to deal with the issues pertaining to the temples that prevail all over the country. Kalyan said those issues require a national debate involving policymakers, religious leaders, judicial bodies, citizens, and media organizations.
Pawan Kalyan Calls for National ‘Sanatana Dharma Rakshana Board’ to Protect Religious Sanctity
In another tweet, Kalyan said, “Perhaps the time has come to constitute a ‘Sanatana Dharma Rakshana Board’ at a national level to look into all the issues related to temples in Bharath. A debate has to happen at a national level by all the policymakers, religious heads, judiciary, citizens, media, and all others in their respective domains. I think we all should come together to put an end to the desecration of ‘Sanatana Dharma’ in any form.”
His statement, however, stirred a hornet’s nest. Another film personality-turned-politician, Prakash Raj, slammed Kalyan for blowing the issue out of proportion and making it a national controversy, saying he should handle the issue locally and put an end to it. “A move like this can worsen communal tensions. He should take it up at the local level instead. Such statements are sure to promote communalism,” Prakash Raj on Pawan Kalyan said.
Pawan Kalyan Filmography
Telugu cinema has been a career for him since acting debut in 1996 with Akkada Ammayi Ikkada Abbayi. Known for smash box office hits like Tholi Prema (1998), Gabbar Singh (2012), and Bheemla Nayak (2022), Kalyan has also witnessed disappointments in the film journey. But the recent political activities, which include this public atonement and calls for religious protection, reflect his commitment to protecting cultural and spiritual values in his function as a politician.