Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw shared the model of the upcoming Tirupati railway station on Monday, May 30, invoking a flurry of opinions on the design. Sharing a few images of the exterior and interior design of the upcoming railway station for the temple town, Vaishnaw wrote, “Tirupati world-class railway station on fast track. All contracts awarded.” In the model photos, the inside of the station showed an image of the Venkateswara deity of the Tirumala temple mounted on a wall. The rest of the design showed no indications of the deity or the temple, which is among the richest and most popular Hindu temples in the world, visited by around 70,000 to 80,000 or more devotees on a daily basis.
This triggered disappointed reactions from many Twitter users, who called for a design that was more indicative of ‘Indian culture’ or ‘Hindu culture’. While a few of them complained that the design made the railway station look like a government building or corporate office, a few others complained that it reflected a ‘Christian’ or ‘church’ like aesthetic. Tirupati has been at the centre of a series of controversies and attempts at polarisation from right-wing groups in Andhra Pradesh, especially since Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who belongs to the Christian faith, came to power in 2019. Since then, there have been many instances of false news spread over alleged forced conversions and the alleged presence of Christian faith and symbols in the temple town. Questions were also raised about the faith of employees in the TTD (Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams), the body which manages the affairs of the temple.
Transforming or converting? This looks like one of those European church blueprints repurposed to make a Railway Station. https://t.co/WeSkbCK1E5
— Ramesh Venkatraman (@rameshvenkatram) May 31, 2022
@RailMinIndia This Building was looking like IT Park or 5 star hotel building, Tirupati is holy place, we need a temple background architecture Desigs, People enter into Tirupati they get some peace while seeing temples around Tirupati. #Tirupati https://t.co/AKv8XPp0xJ
— Aravind jai (@Aravindjai79) May 31, 2022
#tirupati this model looks like software office ,hospital, school. No where does it holds the vibe of indian culture or lord vishnu. Bad model #tirupatirailwaystation . Sir,Please look at this with different perspective @AshwiniVaishnaw . https://t.co/0WLZCyzB0I
— Murali vyomi (@Muralivyomi) May 31, 2022
@kishanreddybjp గారు if you can do something... please try to get the design of Tirupati Railway station changed to something which is in sync with the Hindu Culture...
— The Common Man (@C_man06312391) May 31, 2022
Please go through other comments on this Tweet by @AshwiniVaishnaw ji... you'll get an idea of what we want.. https://t.co/xOM0rHbfJM
PPL in govt. Think "world class" is synonymous with Christianity! Isn't it @narendramodi ?? Y is hindu architecture & culture isn't world class?? #HinduLivesNeverMatter to u... https://t.co/qb4kRWQvOO
— ದಮಯಂತಿ (@Purvabhaadra) May 31, 2022
Filmmaker Nag Ashwin, who has directed the award-winning biopic of actor Savitri Mahanati, and is currently filming Project K starring Prabhas, Deepika Padukone and Amitabh Bachchan, also weighed in on the discussion. He responded to the Minister’s tweet and wrote, “Dear sir...as u might have seen in the comments...nobody likes this...The design looks like some generic western copy, some bad IT park... tirupati is sacred, spiritual...lets get ppl to design it who understand the rich architecture of India..and not this glass n steel copies (sic)”
Dear sir...as u might have seen in the comments...nobody likes this...The design looks like some generic western copy, some bad IT park... tirupati is sacred, spiritual...lets get ppl to design it who understand the rich architecture of India..and not this glass n steel copies
— Nag Ashwin (@nagashwin7) May 31, 2022
Read: