'Why should I not go to the temple?'

A defiant Ramanathapuram Congress legislator Hasan Ali on Wednesday said he would go to the nearby Sri Ramanathaswamy temple 'again and again' and neither the Bharatiya Janata Party nor the Hindu Munnani could do anything about it.

He told PTI in Ramanathapuram that his forefather-- Seethakathi Vallal (a popular trader and philanthropist) -- who was in the court of the Sethupathy King, who ruled Ramanathapuram around 200 years ago, was a trustee of the temple, and charged that the BJP was acting as if it was only interested in the temple affairs.

He said he would go to the temple with a lot of people again, and asked if he stopped the pooja (prayers) at the temple or gave any other trouble when he visited it earlier.      

He said he had gone to the temple several times earlier from when he was 13 years old.

"I am not against Hindu temple or Hinduism. Why should I not go to the temple," he asked.

Authorities of the Sri Ramanathaswamy temple performed a 'parikara pooja' (cleaning and atonement pooja) after Hasan Ali entered it on Saturday last.

Meanwhile, the BJP national committee member K Murali said when a system was there and non-Hindus were not allowed inside the temple,then it should not be violated. He said Muslims and Hindus in Rameswaram moved like family members. But the MLA was trying to spoil this atmosphere.

Even in Mosques, non-muslims are not allowed to sit on Nambir.

"The Muslims, in fact organise boats for the float festival of Sri Ramanathaswamy temple and they also get honoured. But all that is done outside the temple," Murali said.