New Delhi: Vice President of India Jagdeep Dhankhar, Who visited Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala on Tuesday in Karnataka to inaugurate Sri Saanidhya complex to ease waiting time for devotees offering prayers at Sri Manjunatha Swamy, slammed VIP culture at religious places.
“Religious institutions are emblematic of equality since there is no individual is higher before the almighty, the God. We should re-instill the idea of equality in religious institutions. When precedence is accorded, when priority is given to someone, when we label it as VVIP or VIP, this is belittling the concept of equality,” said Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar during the inauguration ceremony.
Let us all shun VIP culture: VP
The Vice President also said VIP culture is an aberration and urged all to shun the this kind of culture.
“VIP culture is an aberration, it is an incursion when viewed on the anvil of equality. It should have no place in society, much less in religious places. I hope this Dharmsthal being led by luminaries of our times will serve as an example of egalitarianism and let us shun for all times VP culture. The very idea of VIP darshan militates against divinity. It should be dispensed with,” Jagdeep Dhankar added.
‘Infrastructural growth germane to religious places’
Talking about the a newly constructed state-of-the-art queue complex, the Vice President said, “A soothing change in recent years in our country has been infrastructural growth that is germane to our religious places. This needs to be applauded as these are centers of our civilizational values.”
The new facility is conceptualised by D Veerendra Heggade and is an advanced replacement for the existing queue system for devotees seeking to make darshan. The initial queue system at the Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala was introduced decades ago, but the increasing number of devotees at the religious site meant longer waiting period, PTI quoted temple management as saying.
