The on-going loot of Hindu temples continues unabated.....
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Bhailal
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Mar 29, 2011, 9:49:10 AM3/29/11
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Date: Mar 13, 2011 11:15 PM
The on-going loot of Hindu
temples continues unabated.....
By MV Kamath
It is time some one
asked the Government to lay down all the facts on the table so that the public
would know what is happening behind its back. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is not
secularism. And temples are not for looting, under any name. One thought that
Mohammad of Ghazni has long been dead.
WHILE Congress leaders are hell-bent
on damning the RSS – it is an old game that has long ceased to have any meaning
– they seem to be unaware (or deliberately wish to ignore) that as late as on
July 4, 2010 the right hand of a 53-year old Christian college professor (one TJ
Joseph) was chopped off by Muslim fundamentalists, at Thodapurzha, Iduki
district, in Kerala, for alleged blasphemy.
Digvijay Singh probably
doesn't want to be reminded of this. Nor, one suspects, would he be anxious to
know that police found out that this heinous crime was committed as part of the
implementation of the verdict of a Shariah court run by fundamentalist elements
in Kerala. The police apparently discovered that 14 such parallel courts have
been running in Kerala for the last twenty years and Kerala State Home Minister
Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has been reported as confessing that since 1993, twenty
two murders have taken place under the direction of the Shariah courts in Kerala
(vide, Mangalam Daily Kottayam, July 21, 2010).
Digvijay Singh can check
this bit of information as could Rahul Gandhi. At the same time, they could both
check out on the performance of The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment Act
of 1951 which allows State Governments and politicians to take over thousands of
Hindu Temples and maintain complete control over them and their properties. It
is claimed that they can sell the temple assets and properties and use the money
in any way they choose.
A charge has been made not by any Temple
authority, but by a foreign writer, Stephen Knapp in a book (Crimes Against
India and the Need to Protect Ancient Vedic Tradition) published in the United
States that makes shocking reading. Hundreds of temples in centuries past have
been built in India by devout rulers and the donations given to them by devotees
have been used for the benefit of the people.
If, presently, money collected
has ever been misused (and that word needs to be defined), it is for the
devotees to protest and not for any government to interfere. This letter is what
has been happening currently under an intrusive law. It would seem, for
instance, that under a Temple Empowerment Act, about 43,000 temples in Andhra
Pradesh have come under government control and only 18 per cent of the revenue
of these temples have been returned for temple purposes, the remaining 82 per
cent being used for purposes unstated.
Apparently even the world famous
Tirumala Tirupati Temple has not been spared. According to Knapp, the temple
collects over Rs 3,100 crores every year "and the State Government has not
denied the charge that as much as 85 per cent of this is transferred to the
State Exchequer, much of which goes to causes that are not connected with the
Hindu community". Was it for that reason that devotees make their offering to
the temples? Another charge that has been made is that the Andhra Government has
also allowed the demolition of at least ten temples for the construction of a
golf course. "Imagine the outcry" writes Knapp, "if ten mosques had been
demolished". It would seem that in Karanataka, Rs. 79 crores were collected from
about two lakh temples and from that, temples received Rs seven crores for their
maintenance, Muslim madrassahs and Haj subsidy were given Rs 59 crore and
churches about Rs 13 crore. Very generous of the government. Because of this,
Knapp writes, "25 per cent of the two lakh temples or about 50,000 temples in
Karnataka will be closed down for lack of resources", and he adds: "The only way
the government can continue to do this is because people have not stood up
enough to stop it". Knapp then refers to Kerala where, he says, "funds from the
Guruvayur Temple are diverted to other government projects denying improvement
to 45 Hindu temples". Land belonging to the Ayyappa Temple, apparently has been
grabbed and "Church encroaches are occupying huge areas of forest land, running
into thousands of acres, near Sabarimala".
A charge is made that the
Communist state government of Kerala…. wants to pass an Ordinance to disband the
Travancore & Cochin Autonomous Devaswom Boards (TCDBs) and take over their
limited independent authority of 1,800 Hindu temples. If what the author says is
true, even the Maharashtra Government wants to take over some 450,000 temples in
the state which would "supply a huge amount of revenue to correct the state's
bankrupt conditions…." And to top it all, Knapp says that in Orissa, the state
government intends to sell over 70,000 acres of endowment lands from the
Jagannath Temple, the proceeds of which would solve a huge financial crunch
brought about by its own mismanagement of temple assets. Says Knapp: "Why such
occurrences are so often not known is that the Indian media, especially the
English television and press, are often anti-Hindu in their approach, and thus
not inclined to give much coverage, and certainly no sympathy, for anything that
may affect the Hindu community. Therefore, such government action that play
against the Hindu community go on without much or any attention attracted to
them".
Knapp obviously is on record. If the facts produced by him are
incorrect, it is up to the government to say so. It is quite possible that some
individuals might have set up temples to deal with lucrative earnings. But that,
surely, is none of the government's business? Instead of taking over all
earnings, the government surely can appoint local committees to look into temple
affairs so that the amount discovered is fairly used for the public good? Says
Knapp: "Nowhere in the free, democratic world are the religious institutions
managed, maligned and controlled by the government, thus denying the religious
freedom of the people of the country. But it is happening in India. Government
officials have taken control of Hindu temples because they smell money in them,
they recognise the indifference of Hindus, they are aware of the unlimited
patience and tolerance of Hindus, they also know that it is not in the blood of
Hindus to go to the streets to demonstrate, destroy property, threaten, loot,
harm and kill…
Many Hindus are sitting and watching the demise of their
culture. They need to express their views loud and clear…." Knapp obviously does
not know that should they do so, they would be damned as communalists. But it is
time some one asked the Government to lay down all the facts on the table so
that the public would know what is happening behind its back. Robbing Peter to
pay Paul is not secularism. And temples are not for looting, under any name. One
thought that Mohammad of Ghazni has long been dead.