Bonalu Rangam - Oracle Has Government Red-Faced

The second day of the Lashkar Bonalu festivities commenced at the Ujjaini Mahankali temple in Secunderabad with the traditional "rangam".

Standing on an earthen pot (pachchi kunda) near the temple, jogini Erupula Swarnalatha, the oracle, invoked the goddess and performed the rangam, and answered a number of questions posed by the devotees.

The oracle said that while the devotees came to her darsan with joy every year, this year it was different and they were coming to her with grief. She said that the bangaru (golden) bonam offered this year by the state government did not make her happy - the government had given her only what was anyway hers, and it (the government) was putting the people to hardships. She said that what she wanted was not a golden bonam but her devotees being happy.

"There is a feeling among the government and the officials that good is being done to my devotees and the people, but in reality more harm is being done to them than good. There is a vast gap between what is being said and what is being done actually. People are cursing the government and its officials. The women (aadapaduchulu) are particularly grief-stricken this year," she said.

She, however, assured people that she herself would take care all her children. She would be always on the side of justice and righteousness, and she would punish the bad elements.

Replying to a volley of questions, she said that there would be abundant rains in the coming days and the agricultural production would increase.

After the rangam, the portrait of the goddess was taken out in a procession in the streets on a caparisoned elephant. In the evening a "phalahaarapu bandla" procession was taken out from different areas to the temple as part of the festivities.