Shashi Tharoor on artiste-temple controversy: ‘Where’s Vasudaiva Kutumbakam?’

Amid controversy over a Kerala artiste’s remarks that she has been barred from performing inside a temple, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday said he was “shocked”. “Other faiths go out of their way to attract others to respect their religion, throwing open the doors of mosques, churches, gurudwara and synagogues to all, but some of my fellow Hindus prefer to shut our temples to outsider. “Where’s vasudaiva kutumbakam? (the world is one family),” he wrote on Twitter.

He was responding to Bharatnatyam artiste V P Mansiya’s comments that she could not perform at the Koodalmanikyam temple in Kerala’s Thrissur at an event in April. The artiste hails from a Muslim family in Malappuram district, is married to a Hindu man and maintains that she has no religion. In a Facebook post, Mansiya wrote that she was scheduled to perform at the temple on April 21.

Koodalmanikyam temple board chairman Pradeep Menon said though Mansiya is an acclaimed dancer temple, the rules permit only Hindus to perform inside the shrine.

“I understand some restrictions in some temples about access to sanctum sanctorum, but this is a dance performance with other dancers in temple premises,” he told news agency ANI. Shashi Tharoor is a member of parliament from Thiruvananthapuram.

VP Mansiya also spoke to the Hindustan Times on Monday. “We have come out of religious barriers long back. We have no idea how to get a fresh stamp either. I have no religion. It seems it is difficult for people without religious confines to survive,” she said. She added that she had faced similar problems in many temples, including the Sree Krishna temple in Guruvayur.

Former Kerala health minister KK Shailaja also criticised the decision of the temple board. “It is a serious issue. We have to come out of this mindset otherwise communalism will flourish,” Shailaja said.