Kesava Perumal Temple Mylapore NC Sridhar HR & CE battle

Only last week, this section had featured a couple of stories on Temple Activist TR Ramesh calling for devotees to be part of the 'Own Your Temple' launch at the Kapaleeswarar Temple in Mylapore seeking to relieve temples from the clutches of the HR & CE (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2022/08/kapali-temple-own-your-temple-launch.html). This story is about a set of serious accusations the HR & CE has levied against private Trustees in the way they have administered the ancient Athi Kesava Perumal temple in Mylapore throwing the concept of private management of temples into question.

It has been a see saw battle over the last 12months between Chairman of Trustees NC Sridhar and the HR & CE over the administration of the Adhi Kesava Perumal temple in Mylapore. While August 2021’s suspension order against Sridhar had been set aside by the Madras High Court and he had begun to manage the utsavams as earlier, recently, the HR & CE has come out with a scathing attack on the Board of Trustees and its functioning in the years gone by. The HR & CE has posted a point by point description of the allegations against the Trustees. 

In a sweeping accusation, the HR & CE has listed out over 10 serious offences against NC Sridhar (Chairman) and the Board of Trustees. These include financial irregularities relating to multiple properties of the temple over a long period of time. The HR & CE has also stated that the Board of Trustees has not taken back possession of the jewels from the priests at the end of the Big Utsavams in the last three year as has been the practice in the past. They have also accused the Board of not accounting for monies collected from the devotees for the Thiruppani of the Chitrakulam.

In light of these, the HR & CE has suspended NC Sridhar and the Board of Trustees and appointed an AC as the Thakkar of the temple.  

In August last year, in a rather dramatic and sudden move the HR & CE had taken over the administration from the long standing trustee who had been the trustee for the last two decades. 

P Sekar Babu, the HR & CE Minister had told this writer in an exclusive chat that he ruled out the possibility of handing the temple back to the existing trustees who had been in charge for the last two decades or so as there were several allegations against them especially relating to selling of temple lands. He had said that there had been a file sent by the HR & CE department to the Government in 2018 alleging illegal sale of the temple lands by the Trustee. While no action had been taken in the last couple of years, he said he received the file and had taken action based on that. He also said that he will be investigating the specifics relating to the lands illegally transferred which he indicated ran into several acres. 

Sekar Babu had visited the temple and spoke to the archakas asking them to carry out the pooja under the new Thakkar appointed at that time.

Soon after the hostile takeover, NC Sridhar had told this writer that he would fight the case in the court for he had given his life and soul to the temple over the two decades he had been a trustee and had termed the hostile takeover an arbitrary and unjustified move. He told this writer in a conversation last year that he as the Chairman of the Trustees or the other trustees had not sold or alienated a single piece of land belonging to the temple in the last two decades and that the allegations of the minister were false and misleading.

With the Madras setting aside the suspension, he came back strong and began managing the utsavams as earlier including the Pey Azhvaar Utsavam in November last year and then the grand Theppotsavam at Chitrakulam. He wrote to the HR& CE to hand back the keys of the office that had remained shut for several months last year.  

While NC Sridhar did manage to secure the trusteeship back from the HR & CE and has been managing the utsavams this year, the current suspension is the latest twist in the tale. He has been closely associated with this temple and has a deep devotional attachment especially with Mayuravalli Thayar. One will have to wait and watch as to how this unfolds but for the moment the HR & CE is back in full control of the Athi Kesava Perumal temple in Mylapore. One will also wait with bated breath as to how the HR & CE will organize the annual trip to the Parthasarathy Perumal Koil in Thiruvallikeni later this month, an event they will be managing for the first time in recent decades.