Movie songs on LED screen atop Tirumala shock devotees

Tirupati, April 23:  Devotees at Tirumala temple near here were in for a shock when a LED screen at the famous hill shrine started showing movie songs instead of spiritual ones.

On Friday evening, the LED screen in front of a shopping complex at Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple suddenly started showing Hindi songs, leaving the devotees dumbfounded as the screen is meant to telecast only spiritual activities.

While the songs continued for about 15 minutes, some devotees even recorded it on their cell phones and made them viral on social media.

Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), which manages the affairs of the world's richest temple, has a broadcasting wing. Lack of proper supervision of the employees is believed to have led to this incident. A similar incident had occurred in the past as well, when a LED screen started telecasting a private channel.

TTD Executive Officer Dharma Reddy clarified that Friday's incident occurred due to some technical glitch in the set top box. However, the employees acted swiftly to rectify it, he added.

Meanwhile, BJP's Andhra Pradesh state unit president Somu Veerraju has reacted strongly to the incident. He questioned the involvement of politicians in the running of the Sri Venkateswara Bhakthi Channel (SVBC) under the TTD. He wondered how movie songs can be played on SVBC as 80 per cent of TTD funds for propagation of Hindu dharma are given it.

The BJP leader also alleged that the devotees at Tirumala temple are facing several hardships and reminded the TTD that providing all facilities to devotees is its responsibility. He said that this is happening as people having no knowledge of 'dharma' are in the TTD governing body.

He said that the TTD should make public the details of how it is spending Rs 3,500 crore for 'dharma parchar'.