Minister’s faux pas on private darbar upsets Mysore royal family

Mysore: District-in-charge minister, V. Sreenivasprasad may have inadvertently worsened strained relations with the Mysore royal family by announcing on Saturday that it would not hold a private darbar or its own Vijaydashami celebrations this year.

The palace contradicted him soon afterwards saying the minister was not authorised to speak on the subject. “It’s for Maharani Pramoda Devi to decide and she has not taken a decision yet as claimed by the minister. Any decision will be taken only after the Ganesha festival on August 29,” asserted palace secretary, Lakshminarayan.

The minister made his faux pas after according a traditional welcome to the first batch of Dasara elephants at the Aranya Bhavan in the city. Speaking to  reporters, he claimed Pramoda Devi had informed him during his recent meeting with her that the royal family would not hold a private darbar or its Vijaydashmi celebrations this year on account of the death of her husband, Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar in December last.

“The palace grounds will be used to hold state sponsored events as scheduled, but the royal family has decided to suspend its in-house rituals due to the year-long mourning being observed,” he said. But when contacted, Mr Lakshminarayan said the minister’s statement was factually incorrect.

“The Maharani didn’t confirm anything to the minister on holding of the private darbar during the recent meeting. What if she appoints a successor before Dasara? In that case, a private darbar and other celebrations will go on. Any decision has to be taken by the Maharani and no one else is competent to comment.

She had made it clear at her recent press conference that the final decision on the private darbar and other events would be taken after the Ganesha festival,” the official said, adding that if the successor was not appointed before Dasara, the royal family could suspend the holding of musical recitals, dance performances and so on, but religious events like the ‘Durga puja’ and ‘Ganapati puja’ held during ‘Navaratri’ would be performed by the palace priests.

Meanwhile, the minister tried to downplay the animosity between the state government and the royal family, saying Pramoda Devi had promised to co-operate with it in conducting the Mysore Dasara. “I will shortly meet her to officially invite her to Dasara and have another round of discussion on the festival,” he added.