Poor response for Datta Jayanthi at Bababudangiri shrine

The much-hyped Datta Jayanthi celebrations organized by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal at the disputed cave shrine of Bababudangiri in Chickmagalur district of Karnataka turned out be a lacklustre affair on account of a poor turnout.

Though the organizers had claimed that more than 50,000 devotees would turn up at the hill shrine for the annual celebrations on Monday, barely a few thousands arrived on the occasion.

The authorities allowed the devotees to have a glimpse of the deity, but refused the organizers permission to perform prayers in keeping with the restrictions imposed by the High Court.

Deputy Commissioner of Chickmagalur district told the Sangh Parivar leaders and pontiffs, who had turned up for the Datta Jayanthi, that permission will not be allowed for performing puja and other rituals in accordance with the court orders.

The disputed shrine converted into a veritable fortress with the deployment of thousands of personnel in several layers. Barricades had been put up all the way to the cave shrine.

Even the media had been kept at bay during the celebrations. The media persons, who are generally allowed up to the entrance of the cave, were permitted to go only up to the welcome arch at the beginning of the path.

The police officers, who had thrown a thick blanket of security across the shrine for the Datta Jayanthi celebrations, heaved a sigh of relief over the peaceful conduct of the event with no untoward incident being reported.

But, the poor turnout of devotees proved to be a setback to the BJP and the Sangh Parivar organizations, which were keen on making Bababudangiri the “Ayodhya of the South”. Bajrang Dal’s Karnataka unit convenor Mahendra Kumar attributed the poor turnout to “excessive” restrictions imposed by the district administration.

“Excessive restrictions imposed by the district administration are the main reason for people’s disinterest. We will be discussing the matter with the village level convenors of Bajrang Dal and decide on our next course of action in January. We may start an awareness campaign for next year’s event from February”, he said.

Though the BJP’s senior leadership stayed away from the event, party’s Minister for Religious Endowments Nagaraj Shetty, party MLAs Sunil Kumar, C T Ravi and Yogesh Bhat were present.