BHUBANESWAR :A year-long series of programmes will be organised across the country to mark the centenary of Dalit temple entry, culminating in a major public meeting in Tirupati in October 2027, former Union minister and senior Congress leader Chinta Mohan said on Thursday.
Addressing a media conference at the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee office in Bhubaneswar, Chinta Mohan said the celebrations would begin around October 13, 2026, and continue until October 13, 2027. Meetings, seminars, discussions and public gatherings would be held in cities and pilgrimage centres, including Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow, Varanasi, Ayodhya, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kerala and Srisailam, to highlight the struggle against untouchability and the demand for equal access to places of worship.
Chinta Mohan attributed the campaign for Dalit temple entry to Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress, recalling an incident involving a Dalit man named Murugan at the Tiruchanur temple near Tirupati about a century ago.
According to him, Murugan, described as belonging to the Panchama community, entered the temple and offered camphor aarti. Police subsequently registered a case under Section 295 and lodged him in Tirupati jail, he said.
Chinta Mohan said C. Rajagopalachari later came to Tirupati and argued the case in court, helping Murugan avoid punishment. He added that a four-page letter was written to Gandhi highlighting the incident, the police action and the continuing practice of untouchability.
The Congress leader claimed that Gandhi subsequently led a satyagraha in Tirupati and facilitated temple entry for 33 Dalits on October 13, 1925. He said the incident deserved wider recognition in India’s social history and that Murugan’s role should not be forgotten.
The proposed centenary programmes would bring together leaders from different political parties, legal experts, intellectuals and others committed to equality, he said. The concluding meeting in Tirupati would be organised on a large scale, he added.
Chinta Mohan also argued that Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and minorities had yet to achieve full political, economic and social freedom. Accusing the BJP-led government of undermining Dalit rights, he said October 13 would be observed every year as Dalit Rights Day.
Earlier, Chinta Mohan received a welcome at the Odisha Congress headquarters, where Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhakta Charan Das and other party leaders felicitated him with a bouquet and a shawl.
The historical claims regarding the 1925 incident and the temple-entry campaign were presented by Chinta Mohan at the press conference.
Odisha Congress Party Vice-President Susmita Behera, SC Department Chairman Manas Mallick, and General Secretary Bankanidhi Behera participated in this press conference.
