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Non-Muslims are never made trustees or guardians of Mosques.
Non-Christians are never made trustees or guardians of Churches.
Non-Sikhs are never made trustees or guardians of Gurudwaras.

So why are the non-Hindus allowed to be the trustees or guardians of the Hindu temples?

The government of India, at the centre and in the states, actively places non-Hindus as overseers of Hindu temples. Indeed, Hindu temples are the only institutions to be “acquired” by the government to “make sure its finances are not misused”. Why? Aren’t Muslims, Sikhs or Christians just as venerable to their religious institutions being misappropriated? Indeed, over the years, it has been amply proven that they are more in need of assistance than the temples! The Golden Temple at Amritsar, along with several others, was misused by terrorists and separatists to hoard weapons, terrorists and anti-national literature. A government/army action had to be instigated to remove this in the 1980s. Yet, Gurudwaras remain free of government control.

Recently, mosques and madrassas have been routinely used as hiding places by spies and the terrorists. They have been used in Kashmir as safe houses and as arms dumps. Government is well aware of the activities of several Imams who spew communal hatred on weekly basis to Muslims gathered for the Friday prayers. No one in the government sees it fit to regulate their affairs by putting a government body to oversee their activities.

Christian missionaries regularly convert people by offering inducements of job, money, housing and education. Often, illiterate parents are promised great futures for their children if they convert and send their children to the mission school. Amongst these missionaries, sexual / physical abuse is well known and internationally documented. Yet, Christian institutions remain free of any control to make sure they do not misuse the trust of their congregation or mislead people by convert by false promises.

Hindu temples have never been misused to hoard anti-India people/literature. Hindu temples have never sheltered terrorists or arms and ammunition. YET, Hindus have to submit their temple to stringent government control. Finances of the richest Hindu temples are taken over by the government and are redistributed by them as they see fit. Non-Hindus are places at the helm of these overbearing government committees and all the wishes of the devotes are ignored to please the political appointees. Harking back to the days when Muslims and Christians ruled us with an iron grip, proscribing our religious life to force us to convert, the today’s politicians, are hurting the Hindus.

Hindus should demand that their temples be free of outside interference. Hindus should demand that only Hindus, and only members of their own sect, be allowed to sit on the committees that oversee the funds and activities of the temple. Hindus should demand that they be in charge of how the funds contributed by them, are disbursed.

Hindu temples, once their finances are taken over by the government, are unable to use that money to repair or restore any part of the building without the government overlords’ say so. Pealing paintwork, damaged art works and stones covered over with lichen are all too familiar sights even in the richest of Hindu temples. Crumbling architecture is often allowed to fall before any action is taken. When action is taken, it is often not in keeping with the architectural style of the original and is often concrete walls covered over with tasteless marble tiles.

Security at Hindu temples is lax at best and non-existent at worst. No one seems to care or consider the impact of the terrorist plans on our culture and country. Even after Akshardham in Gujarat was attacked, no one seems to take the threat seriously!! In Diwali 2005, Delhi was attacked. On 7th of March 2006, Varanasi was attacked! The security apparatus in India needs to awaken to this new danger to our cultural independence.

Money flowing into the temple coffers is emptied with equal speed and often the temple priests are forced to rely on pilgrims to supplement their meagre wages, set to 1970s standards. This leads to priests being ladled as greedy and grasping. They are only trying to earn a living, denied to them by their own temple boards.

In the old days, temples used to distribute food to the needy, poor, pilgrims and sadhus alike. Now, that their source of funds are ceased by the government, they can’t do the charity work as before. The poor are forced to beg from the pilgrims rather than rely on the temple board to feed them. No social works are carried out by the government to alleviate the poverty in pilgrimage sites. They simply appropriate the temple funds to supplement charities motivated by their politically leanings.

The government, local, state and central, does nothing to help the pilgrimage sites from encroachment. Illegal land grabs, stall holders on every inch of land left vacant and buildings unsympathetic to the environment of the place abound. No rules are put in place to make sure the place is kept noise and pollution free. Shops blare out music of all sorts at high volume day and night. Open gutters, stray animals and lack of dustbins leaves entire pilgrimage site an unsightly mess. The money garnered from pilgrims, should be used to improve the environs of the temple town. Roads should be made easy to navigate and shops regulated to make sure they do not sell substandard items to the pilgrims. Noise and environmental pollution should be checked to make sure the sanctity of the town is maintained. Sadly, currently, none of this happens and Hindus suffer day and night in places that are most sacred to them.

Money garnered from hard working Hindus is stiffened off to pay the minority projects supported by our so called secular politicians. One such example is the Hajj subsidy paid to Muslims. Hindus do not get any help for their pilgrimages, yet Muslims do! Hajj subsidy is against the Sharia and is not offered by any of the Islamic nations, including Saudi Arabia. Yet, Muslims in India keep availing this unfair, un-islamic aid. Christian churches, missions and schools are given government land at throw away prices, where as temple lands are confiscated and re-allocated by the government to their favourite projects.

Hindu leaders, such as the Shankaracharya of Kanchi are unfairly accused to neutralise their power and appeal to the minority vote banks. By foisting unreasonable cases on them, the government hopes to drain them of financial resources and keep them in fighting the courts rather than carrying out the good works amongst the community. The recent case of Swami Ramdev has proved, that the political parties are out to get Hindus in any way they can. Now that all allegations against his pharmacy have been proven false, I wonder if the political leaders who falsely accused him, will apologise! Hindu leaders need to stand as one to make sure they are not taken advantage of by the government.

Hindus must unite and get the noose of government control off the neck of their religious institutions. Hindus must form a united front so that the “minority” centric politics comes to an end in India!!

Bhagwat K Shah

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