A newspaper clipping from Kannada daily Vijayavani's Mangaluru edition is viral on social media. It carries the news of the appointment of a new assistant executive officer (AEO) at the Kukke Sri Subramanya Temple in Karnataka. The name of the man who has been appointed as the AEO is Yesuraj. Several social media users have raised questions Yesuraj's religion. According to them, Yesuraj is not a Hindu by birth, but he converted to Hinduism from Christianity.
Kukke Subramanya is a temple in Subramanya village of Kadaba taluk in Dakshina Kannada district. It is believed to be 5000 years old.
A user named Girish Bharadwaj (@Girishvhp), whose bio suggests that he is involved with the Vishva Hindu Parishad, shared the image on x (formerly Twitter) and wrote, "...The government must confirm whether Mr YESU RAJ is a Hindu or a converted Christian, as the Hindu Endowment Act stipulates that only those who are Hindus or profess the Hindu religion should be appointed under this act."
His tweet has received close to 2 Lakh views and has been retweeted over 2,500 times.
Quote-tweeting the above tweet, user ಸುಷ್ಮಾ ಅಯ್ಯಂಗಾರ್ (@malnadkoos) wrote, "...What is the motive of the state govt to appoint a person of different faith as AEO. What does he know about temple to begin with? Why is state govt fixated on hindu temples so much when they despise everything about devotion,temples ?..."
Right-Wing outlet Hindu Post published a report amplifying the above claim.
VHP Karnataka and several social media users, too, amplified the claim that the newly appointed AEO of the temple was a Christian.
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Fact Check
We found a tweet by Ramalinga Reddy (@RLR_BTM), the Muzrai minister in Karnataka. The Muzrai department stands for the 'Department Of Hindu Religious And Charitable Endowments'. In his tweet, Reddy denied the claim that Yesuraj was a Christian. He also mentions that this is an attempt by the BJP to cause fear among people as another phase of polling is nearing.
He also shared a few documents wherein one can see details about Yesuraj's background.
Reddy shared a transfer letter from Siddhartha High School in Mysuru, where Yesuraj had studied. In this document, his religion and caste are mentioned as 'Hindu' and 'Scheduled Caste', respectively.
The minister also shared a caste certificate issued by the government of Karnataka, which certified that Yesuraj belonged to the Scheduled Caste community.
As per The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, "no person who professes a religion different from
the Hindu, the Sikh or the Buddhist religion shall be deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste".
We also came across a news report by the Deccan Chronicle which quoted VHP south zone convener Sharan Pumpwell as saying that the concerns about Yesuraj's religious identity were raised because of his name. He says 'Yesuraj' is an uncommon name among Hindus, but after the clarification by Ramalinga Reddy, they didn't have any objection.
Hence, the claim that Yesuraj, the newly appointed AEO of the Kukke Sri Subrahmanya Temple in Karnataka, is not a Hindu but a Christian is baseless and false.
The readers should note that a related claim --- that the Siddaramaiah government had amended the laws and introduced a provision to appoint non-Hindus in temple trusts --- went viral in the past. A detailed report on the claims, counterclaims and facts regarding this can be found in this Alt News report.
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