Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan cancelled his scheduled visit to Nepal this week at the last moment due to the deepening row over the hallowed Pashupatinath temple that has pitted Nepal's Maoist government against priests and Hindu devotees, said a report on Monday (January 5).
Former Indian defence minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, who was also chief minister of Uttar Pradesh - once one of India's biggest states - and heads the powerful Samajwadi Party, told Nepal's media the Big B, as the veteran actor is popularly known, and billionaire industrialist Anil Ambani were to have accompanied him during his two-day visit to Nepal.
However, the two celebrities decided not to come after a political row and violence erupted in the 17th century temple that is revered by billions of Hindus worldwide.
Yadav, who arrived in Kathmandu Sunday on a private visit at the personal invitation of Nepal's President Ram Baran Yadav, also said he had planned to visit Pashupatinath's shrine on Monday.
But he too decided to shelve the idea after the temple row began escalating.
The shrine was dragged into a furious dispute after the Maoist government said three Indian priests engaged almost a decade ago had resigned on health grounds and were replaced by Nepali priests.
The new appointments broke away from a nearly 300-year tradition started by the former kings of Nepal who looked to bringing priests from southern India, considering them to have the deep vedic knowledge required for the elaborate worship at the shrine.
The Nepali assistants of the Indian priests as well as Hindu organisations say the Indian priests were forced to resign. They are also accusing the Maoist government of trying to control the treasury of the icon by appointing their own people.
The dispute has reached Nepal's Supreme Court with three different groups asking the apex court to scrap the new appointments.
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