Teerth Purohit Mahasabha burnt the effigy of Rajya Sabha member Tarun Vijay on Sunday following his statement given to the media persons a day before on Saturday saying that a fee amount must be fixed for the rituals performed by the Purohits on Har Ki Pauri. Perturbed, they have demanded the Parliamentarian to apologise and withdraw his statement. Tarun Vijay had said that to avoid the extortion of money from the visitors by the priests at Har Ki Pauri, an amount must be fixed by the government or the administration.
The priest community alleged that the way the BJP MPs were hacking a conspiracy against the priests of Haridwar was despicable and would not be tolerated at any cost. Yuva teerth purohit Nitin Kaushik told the Pioneer that giving such a statement, Tarun Vijay had attacked the bread and better of the priest community. The Brahmin priests accepted any charities given to them by the visitor willingly for the rituals and that the priests never demanded.
Speaking to the Pioneer, president of the Teerth purohit Mahasabha Rajeev Parasher said, “As far as the remark of the BJP Parliamentarian on dress code was concerned, we agree to it that the priest performing rituals at the sanctum sanctorum must be traditionally Indian and not T’s and jeans. But we are not agreeing to the proposal that a certain fees should be fixed for the Brahmins. It is a matter of faith and not business.”
Parasher further said that sometimes priests even give money from their own pocket to the visitor for the material used in rituals ceremony if the person is poor.
“But if a visitor client like Ambani or any such big industrialist visits Har Ki Pauri then definitely good amount of charity is expected. But who will fix this amountIJ Who gives the authority to Tarun Vijay to decide the amount of charityIJ”