A longstanding battle over “secular” vs “Brahminical” control of Tamil Nadu’s temples, currently being fought between the ruling DMK and the Sangh parivar, has heated up with finance minister Palanivel Thiagarajan calling celebrity yoga practitioner Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev a “publicity hound”.
The MIT-educated technocrat turned politician, known popularly as PTR, also alleged irregularities in the way the Coimbatore-based Sadhguru’s Isha Foundation had constructed buildings on forestland. His comments prompted the foundation to deplore the “un-parliamentary and uncalled for personal attack”.
Sadhguru is widely seen as a supporter of many of the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had in December 2019 approvingly tweeted a video showing Sadhguru chiding the critics of the new citizenship regime.