Bengaluru: Progressive thinkers and intellectuals have joined hands with a Dalit outfit and a political party to put pressure on the district administration to bring out the truth of miracles associated with the historic Hasanamba temple.
As part of a social enlightening movement, leaders from the Dalit Sangharsh Samiti, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and members of India Science and Knowledge committee have demanded that the administration stop promoting superstitions among devotees.
The temple, located in Hassan district in old Mysore region of Karnataka, opens only for a few days in a year and attracts thousands of pilgrims. It is believed that the lamp lit in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple continues to glow even a year later, and flowers and food offered to the deity by devotees also remain fresh.
The district administration has been accused of endorsing and promoting these beliefs as it had highlighted these so-called miracles in its publicity material for Hasanamba Utsav, held once in a year, last year. Thanks to this promotion, the number of devotees visiting the temple have gone up.
Calling it a conspiracy hatched by temple authorities to increase visitors, the activists have told the district administration that they will move the High Court if they do not facilitate their demands and enlighten the public.
‘The temple administration is misusing the innocence of devotees and misleading them since a long time. We demand truth to be unearthed," said one member of the India Science and Knowledge committee.
The devotees, however, have not taken too kindly and are calling the whole exercise “anti-Hindu” propaganda. “Those who are raising questions against the supernatural power of Hasanamba are being funded by Christian missionaries,” one said.
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