Nagapattinam: Due to the interference of Minister Shajahan, the Nagore Dargah administration has decided to boycott the sandalwood logs that the Tamil Nadu government provides free of cost every year for the Kanduri festival, according to reports.
The Kanduri festival at the Nagore Dargah in Nagapattinam district is held grandly every year. This year’s 470th Kanduri festival begins on Nov. 10. For the sandal-application ritual held as part of it, the Tamil Nadu government has been providing sandalwood logs free of cost since 2012.
From then until 2017, Nagore Dargah Adheenam Kamil Sahib, and the interim administrators who managed the dargah administration in 2018 and 2019, Alaudheen IAS and Judge Akbar, also obtained the relevant government orders.
Because of the spread of coronavirus in 2020 and 2021, the government order for this was sent by post. In 2022, the interim administration was removed, and the hereditary administration once again took charge through the court. Accordingly, in 2022, Chief Trustee Kamil Sahib and President Khalifa Sahib received the government order for the sandalwood block from the Chief Minister. From 2023 until last year, Chief Trustee Kazi Husein Sahib and President Khalifa Sahib received the government order from the Chief Minister.
Accordingly, this year too, they are the ones who should obtain the government order for the sandalwood block. However, it is said that this year the Minority Welfare Department Minister Shahjahan is arranging to have a person from the Indian Union Muslim League party, which he is associated with, brought forward and to issue the government order for the sandalwood block to him, and that the Waqf Board is cooperating with this.
Following this, when the trustees’ committee members met Minister Shahjahan and asked him, he is said to have said, “The chief trustee and the new person should obtain the government order together. Otherwise, I will dissolve the dargah administration.”
In this regard, it is said that the trustees told the minister that a decision could be made only at the trustees’ meeting and then returned to Nagore, and that a meeting of the trustees’ committee is to be held today (Oct. 21). It has also been reported that, due to pressure from the minister, they are not going to receive sandalwood blocks from the government this year, and that a decision is likely to be made to obtain sandalwood blocks from devotees, as was the practice before 2012.