Nirmala Sitharaman alleges Tamil Nadu 'banned' live telecast of Ram Temple ceremony, state denies claim

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday alleged that the Tamil Nadu government has barred the live telecast of the Ram Temple consecration ceremony in Ayodhya on January 22.

Citing a Tamil daily's reportage, she also claimed that the temples have been prohibited from organising special puja for Lord Ram.

"TN govt has banned watching live telecast of #AyodhaRamMandir programmes of 22 Jan 24. In TN there are over 200 temples for Shri Ram," she posted.

"In HR&CE managed temples no puja/bhajan/prasadam/annadanam in the name of Shri Ram is allowed. Police are stopping privately held temples also from organising events. They are threatening organisers that they will rip off pandals. Strongly condemn this anti-Hindu, hateful action."

However, the claim was swiftly denied by Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR &CE) Minister PK Sekar Babu who expressed dismay at the finance minister for propagating this erroneous information.

"In temples in Tamil Nadu, the HR & CE Department has not imposed any kind of ban for conduct of puja for Lord Ram. Also, there is no bar to distribute 'Annadhanam' and 'Prasadam.' "A rumour is being disseminated to divert people's attention from the DMK's youth wing conference, underway now at Salem," he said in a social media post.

He termed the reportage as completely false, adding that it had ulterior motives. He said it was regrettable that Sitharaman, who holds a high office, was circulating such fake news.