Modi frowns upon "Namo namah", but Sonia, KCR have a temple run too

Narendra Modi did not approve of some enthusiastic Rajkotwalas getting into a "Mandir wahi banayenge" mode. Deciding to admonish them publicly, he chose 420 characters in three tweets to express his disgust with the idea of Modi-fying a man into a God.

"Have seen the news about a temple being built in my name. I was appalled. This is shocking and against India's great traditions.'' The choice of words was intended to convey Modi's anger. And it did, with those who had installed the idol quickly covering it with a cloth. "Narendra Modi Namo Namaha" will have to wait.

Modi's Twitter spanking did not end there. He continued: "Building such temples is not what our culture teaches us. Personally, it made me very sad. Would urge those doing it not to do it.'' Finally, Modi chose to mollify his bhakts with some advice: "If you have time and resources, please devote the same towards fulfilling our dream of a clean India."

But Modi has to only travel 1,500km south to Telangana to find that there are others of his tribe who do not find the idea of transforming into a presiding deity too appalling. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has a temple dedicated to her in Mallial, 40km from Karimnagar town. This came up courtesy, the former Karimnagar MP Ponnam Prabhakar.

A second temple dedicated to Sonia Gandhi has been in the making for more than a year now. This one, sponsored by former Congress minister Dr Shanker Rao. He admits Sonia is personally not in favour of the temple but he and many others think of her as a "Goddess" who granted statehood to Telangana. But his supporters are not too keen on the temple now, given that Rao was not even given a ticket to fight the elections in 2014. Political benefits obviously have a bearing on matters of political faith.

Giving Sonia Gandhi's brand equity as the "Goddess of Telangana" competition in the divine space, is Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. His party leaders have created a small temple for KCR at the entrance to the Agriculture University in Hyderabad. Clearly, with this temple run, the agriculturists of tomorrow are sowing the seeds for a new pantheon in Telangana.