Tirumala: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam has once again faced criticism after Christian prayers popped on a link of TTD’s official website 'www.tirumala.org’.
It all started with the devasthanam releasing its 12-sheet calendar and diary for 2020 on Friday. To download the calendar, netizens, who searched for ‘TTD calendar 2020 pdf’ found several links in Google. A link that came up on top of the search had a line in Telugu ‘Sri Yesaiah. Sri Venkatesaya Namaha. Sri Vikarinama Samvat-sara. Siddan-tha Panchabdamu 2019-2020.’ After reports on this development started appearing on social media, the link to the TTD website was suspended. The page was refreshed by the evening, wherein ‘Sri Yesaiah’ was excluded. It is learnt TTD officials have questioned the IT staff, engaged by TTD and working with TCS, as to how the words appeared. The asked the staff to also confirm whether or not it was a hacking incident.
Reacting to the issue, TTD chief vigilance and security officer Gopinath Jetti said, “After the matter came to our notice, the link was suspended and refreshed by the evening. We have launched a probe into the incident and facts will be established soon.”
Several Hindu groups and political parties, especially BJP activists, have launched a scathing attack against the TTD management. They reiterated their demand that non-Hindu employees working with the board be removed forthwith.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Rayalaseema Porata Samiti convener, P. Naveen Kumar Reddy, alleged that the TTD administration has completely failed in ensuring proper IT security and preventing wilful tampering with the official website.
“In the past, three pages referring to Jesus Christ and Christianity were found in a book uploaded under the ‘e-books’ category. The latest incident has clearly established that it is a wilful act of people belonging to other faiths, who are trying to hurt the sentiments of millions of Hindus,” Reddy stated.
