MADURAI: The Tamil Nadu government on Saturday (September 5) said the omission of trustees' names from the invitation for the Kumbhabhishekam (consecration ceremony) of the ancient Sri Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple was "not deliberate, but an administrative oversight."
Addressing the controversy over the omission of the names of the temple's current trustees from the invitation for the consecration ceremony scheduled for September 17, Energy Resources and Law Minister R Nirmal Kumar said the missing names were "not a result of a deliberate plan or conspiracy, but rather an administrative oversight".
Speaking to reporters here, the minister dismissed allegations of intentional exclusion and attributed the omission to a lack of consensus among the current committee members.
He reiterated the government's policy of non-interference in temple administration and contrasted it with previous regimes, which he alleged had routinely appointed party functionaries and family members to temple trustee boards.
"It is an insignificant issue being blown out of proportion," the minister said.