PWD Minister G Sudhakaran backs non-Brahmin priest

ALAPPUZHA: PWD Minister G. Sudhakaran has demanded the appointment of a non-Brahmin priest to the Chettikulangara temple  and said that the TDB decision to shelve the order  to post the Keezhsaanthi (assistant priest) to the temple was unacceptable.  

“It’s  the TDB which decided to cancel the order to transfer the priest  (Sudhikumar) to the temple. It should  change its decision. Otherwise, the  government will intervene,” he told DC.

He said that  non-Brahmins had entered  the temples in Kerala even before the Supreme Court had pronounced its verdict in 2002. I don’t know why the priest was denied entry to the temple. However, my stand is  that a non- Brahmin priest should be allowed to perform his duty,” the former devaswom minister said.  

Alappuzha DCC  president M. Liju has sent a  letter to TDB president Prayar Gopalakrishnan demanding to  implement the  order appointing Sudhikumar.   He alleged that the TDB was promoting the Sangh Parivar agenda joining hands with Sreedevi Vilasm Hindumatha Convention backed by the RSS against the priest.

The  TDB was trying to take people back to the dark age of casteism which was abolished by popular movements, he said.

“You (Prayar Gopalakrishnan) had served as people’s representative of Indian National Congress which led legendary struggles such as Vaikom and Guruvayoor satyagrahas. So it does not suit  your morality to deny a person’s right to job in the name of caste, taking regressive complaints into account. Being the TDB president, you have to take sincere steps to appoint Sudhikumar as Keezhsanthi at Chettikulangara temple itself,” he said in the letter sent on Friday.