Non-Hindu tahsildar in Thiruvananthapuram transferred; govt denies religion bias

A Revenue Department official in Kerala's capital Thiruvananthapuram has been shifted allegedly since he was not a Hindu as the official holding the post need to take part in the annual festival of the Sree Padmanabhaswami Temple.

Certain Hindu outfits had raised objection against the posting of a non-Hindu to the Thiruvananthapuram tahsildar post, following which the replacement was made.

The incident is likely to cause embarrassment to the CPM-led Left Democratic Front government in Kerala as the Opposition parties were already questioning the progressive stature of the Pinarayi Vijayan government over the Sabarimala women entry issue.

K Ansar, who was posted as tahsildar of Thiruvananthapuram a few days back, was replaced with K Suresh, who was recently posted as tahsildar of Neyyatinkara on the suburbs of Thiruvananthapuram.

Kerala Land Revenue Commissioner, who issued the posting orders, told DH that the changes were only routine ones and the interpretations that it was due to protest by certain Hindu outfits have no basis.

However, sources in the Revenue Department, as well as those associated with the temple, said that it used to be an unwritten norm that only Hindus, that too upper-caste Hindus, would be posted as Thiruvananthapuram tahsildar and village officer of the nearby Vanchiyoor village office. The practice has been followed from the time of erstwhile Travancore kingdom as these two officials are involved in the ‘Aarat’ procession and festival of the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple.

Revenue Department sources said that in case the Thiruvananthapuram tahsildar happens to be a non-Hindu, the tahsildar in charge of land records in Thiruvananthapuram used to perform the temple duty. But now both tahsildars happened to be non-Hindus, which could have happened due to an oversight.

The Hindu Aikya Vedi had raised objections against the posting of non-Hindu officials as tahsildars of Thiruvananthapuram and even called for strong demonstrations unless the decision was revoked. Close on the heels of that, Suresh was posted as Thiruvananthapuram tahsildar replacing Ansar.