While a lot of hullabaloo is happening over the attacks on temples in Andhra Pradesh and there is a concerted attempt to put the YSRCP government on the dock, a clear conspiracy seems to be behind the sordid saga.

While there is a clear attempt to blame the YSRCP government on the issue, the facts speak otherwise. The police have unravelled 18 of the 19 incidents of vandalism at the places of worship and found that all the incidents are unconnected. Not just that, there is no conspiracy in any of the incident. In one case, the idol was not made of stone and weathered away due to constant rain. There was no conspiracy at all. In another case, a devotee took away a part of the idol for some special tantric pooja. In many cases, the culprits were drunk and did not have any religious motive.

But, what is worrisome is that there is a concerted attempt to give undue publicity to these incidents. A section of the media is deliberately trying to foment trouble, said a police official. He said that the number of such attacks and desecrations have actually come down. For instance, in 2016, there were 290 cases of vandalism on places of worship. In 2017, there were 322 incidents. In 2018, there were 305 cases. During all these years, it was the Chandrababu Naidu government, which was in power. This year, only 228 cases have been registered.

Clearly, someone is trying to whip up passions by playing up such attacks, the police official said.