Hyderabad: When K.S. Jawahar Reddy took charge as Andhra Pradesh chief secretary last week, the proceedings at the state secretariat included signing official paperwork, making a speech, and receiving blessings from a group of temple priests, amidst Vedic chants.
While the practice of marking momentous occasions with religious rituals is usually associated with politicians, it has also found favour with several civil servants in the Telugu states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Over the last few years, it is not uncommon for Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers and even top police officers to seek blessings at temples or have priests doing the needful at their place of work.
While critics argue it’s inappropriate for public officials to flaunt faith, others believe there is no harm in seeking divine blessings, especially in this part of the country where there are official endowments department to oversee the administration of temples.
“The chief secretary is the head of the civil services in a state, and even the endowment department, which looks over temples, comes under him. So, what’s wrong if some temple priests bless him at the time of taking charge?” said retired IAS officer I.Y.R Krishna Rao, who served as Andhra’s chief secretary and visited temples while he served in the post. “This is entirely dependent on one’s personal faith.”
Before he became chief secretary, IAS officer Jawahar Reddy served for 19 months as the executive officer of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), overseeing the management of one of the world’s richest temples. Upon his exit too, he had thanked Lord Venkateswara and visited a temple.
But Reddy is hardly an outlier. Several of his predecessors in the Andhra chief secretary post also sought blessings from temple priests when they were appointed.
When IAS officer Adityanath Das, took over the top post in January last year, he too was blessed by temple priests at the time of taking charge. During his tenure, too, he visited the famous Tirumala Tirupati Temple with a delegation of officials and was reportedly “showered” with blessings.
In 2019, IAS officer Nilam Sawhney became the first woman chief secretary of Andhra Pradesh and visited the Kanaka Durga Temple in Vijayawada for darshan and blessings, immediately after taking charge.
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Police and prayers
It’s not just newly appointed chief secretaries who seek blessings from spiritual leaders. Just last week, after he was posted as Warangal district police commissioner, Indian Police Service (IPS) officer A.V. Ranganath visited a temple in that district.
Then there is Gautam Sawang, who served as Andhra Pradesh director general of police (DGP) till early 2022. When he took over as chairman of the Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) in February, he was welcomed to his office amidst Vedic chants by priests.
However, former Andhra DGP Arvind Rao said that this practice cannot be called a ‘trend’ yet, and such instances should be treated as one-off instances.
“I have never believed in such things. In my postings, there was one such instance when I was supposed to take charge on an ‘Amavasya’ day (which is supposed to be inauspicious). I did it anyway. So, it is individual beliefs; I suppose,” Rao told ThePrint.
‘Faith cannot be worn on the sleeve’
While civil servants across India do visit temples and follow their faith, these are generally private affairs. What sets apart the Telugu states is that these events are often conducted in the official domain.
It’s not just the Andhra secretariat either. For instance, when Anuraag Jayanthi took over as collector of Telangana’s Rajanna Siricilla district last year, priests from Vemulawada temple reportedly blessed him.
A top priest from Telangana told ThePrint that “the situation has become such” that officers were not able to completely separate their personal and professional lives.
He added, however, that this was not something to be concerned about. “Most officers prefer to keep a photograph of a deity in the office, so will it be called wrong? As long as it does not interrupt their work, how does it matter?”
Krishna Rao subscribes to this view, too. “One cannot raise an objection to such things. For instance, even in the collector’s case, he is also head of the district. So, technically (he) also oversees affairs at temples,” he said.
But, not everyone agrees. Retired IAS officer P.V. Ramesh, who once served as Andhra Pradesh additional chief secretary, said that when it comes to anyone working in the civil services, “faith cannot be worn on their sleeves”.
“Such an activity does not send the right message and is not in the fitness of things. There’s barely any distinction between the secular and private domain,” Ramesh said.
Another IAS officer from Andhra Pradesh said that some religious events were not planned by civil servants themselves. “In some cases, it is not the bureaucrat who calls the priests but his followers. The officer just obliges. And it is usually kept as a private affair,” the officer claimed.
Politicians have led the way
The practice of seeking blessings is ubiquitous among politicians.
Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) triggered a controversy in 2016 when he made his spiritual guru Chinna Jeeyar Swamy sit on the CM’s chair in his office. Pictures from the event show the guru perched in the CM’s seat while KCR stands next to him.
KCR, though, has always portrayed himself as a devout Hindu— from performing ‘yagnas’ for the well-being of the state (one went on for five days and cost Rs 15 crore), to allotting huge budgets for temple development, to constantly taking blessings from Vedic priests, to being particular about the muhurtham (auspicious time) for any event.
In October, when he renamed his political party from Telangana Rashtra Samithi to Bharat Rashtra Samithi, he made sure to consult priests and do so at an “auspicious” time.
Andhra Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy doesn’t shy away from religion either. When he took oath as CM in 2019, he called a Hindu temple pandit, a Christian priest and an imam to bless him as he took charge.
Before the 2019 polls, his party, the Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP), conducted a 20-month-long ‘havan’ to ensure Jagan’s success.
When former Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh was elected as an MLC in 2017 during his father’s rule, he reportedly did not take charge in the council hall, which is the usual practice, but in a different meeting room. This was done on the advice of an astrologer, and priests chanted hymns while Lokesh took charge.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
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