Keep off temple lands
By S.R. Ramanujan
There is a saying that while king awards instant punishment to his subjects, God takes his own time. But in the case of sale of temple lands in Andhra Pradesh even the successive ?kings? have taken their own time. Atlast a judicial commission headed by a retired High Court judge Justice A Venkatarami Reddy was appointed to probe various misdeeds of the government in the last so many years in selling the temple lands and knowingly allowing encroachments by vested interests.
What has come to light, thanks to the infighting between the Hindu Religious Endowments Minister M Satyanarayana Rao and APCC chief K Kesava Rao, is only the tip of an iceberg. Each one wanted to save his skin and in the process exposed the other. That is beside the point. What is irrefutable is the fact that the Endowments Commissioner, in collusion with political bosses and senior officials, allowed the sale of over 250 acres of endowment land in the Hyderabad outskirts. This is out in the open. But there could be many deals to which various Gods might have been silent witnesses while the corrupt officials cocked a snook at the Almighty. While the market price is around one crore of rupees per acre, the lands were sold for a pittance.
There are 3,76,376 acres of land owned by 33,899 temples in the state. Out of this, 25,000 temples have no land and their annual income is not even Rs 1000/-. There are some 500 temples and Hindu charitable institutions that own 10 to 1000 acres of land. Over a period of time, thanks to the secular governments that did not show any interest in temples for fear of ?branding?, thousands of acres of land were encroached and some of them were sold with fictitious documents. Yes, there were Endowment ministers in every government and they were interested in diverting the temple funds to non-religious purposes as in the case of Balaji temple at Tirupati amounting to breach of trust of the devotees.
There are 3,76,376 acres of land owned by 33,899 temples in the state. Out of this, 25,000 temples have no land and their annual income is not even Rs. 1000. There are some 500 temples and Hindu charitable institutions that own 10 to 1000 acres of land.
Unsurprisingly, the Telugu Desam chief N Chandrababu Naidu demands dismissal of the minister and stern action against the erring officials. To add some novelty to the agitation, TDP wants to hold protest prayer meetings at temples, mosques, and churches, temples, understandable, but why churches and mosques.
These murky deals of the government involving temple lands raise certain fundamental questions. To what extent, can a secular government have control over the properties of a particular religion? What business the government has to appoint members to the Tirumala Tirupati Devastanam Board? And everytime the government, to whichever party it belongs, appoints members to the TTD Board, it is always the chosen men of the party. Why should an IAS officer be poking his nose into the affairs of a religious institution? Is there an IAS officer to manage the affairs of major Churches of the country? Can a government official enter the Jama Masjid in Delhi?
What is disturbing is the fact that not only the government has its stranglehold on Hindu temples leading to illegal sale of their properties, but the government diverts the funds of the temples to non-religious purposes. The Kerala government had recently committed the funds of the Guruvayoor temple for building sewerage systems. The Andhra Pradesh government also is no less guilty of such diversion of funds from the TTD as the Chairman of the Board will be too willing to oblige the powers that be rather than function as the custodian of the temple funds, for after all he is a nominee of the government. God is not going to promote his political interests!
As mentioned earlier, there are 25,000 temples in Andhra Pradesh that have no income even to perform the daily rituals. The priests of those temples are in utter penury. Should not the surplus funds of the temples like the TTD, Srisailam, Simhachalam etc, be utilized for the renovation and upkeep of temples and the daily rituals. Tax payers money has to be used for laying roads or sewerage lines and not the offerings of devotees to God which is a clear breach of trust.
Recently, an online petition was sent to the President of India requesting his intervention to see that the Hindu places of worship be left to the Hindu community. The petition also pointed out that the Constitution guarantees that the State will not interfere with the religious institutions of the people since India is a secular country. True, Art 26 guarantees freedom to manage religious affairs. ?Subject to public order, morality and health, every religious denomination or any section thereof shall have the right:
(a) to establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable purposes;
(b) to manage its own affairs in matters of religion;
(c) to own and acquire movable and immovable property; and
(d) to administer such property in accordance with law?
But there are certain grey areas. The Supreme Court categorized the administrative functions of the temple as secular while giving its verdict in the case of appointment of members to the Managing Committee of the Guruvayoor Temple, thus making a clear distinction between administrative and spiritual or religious management of the temples. This is surprising because Art 26 guarantees freedom to ?administer such property in accordance with law? Thus, there is Constitutional freedom for religious institutions to administer property without any interference from the secular government. Then, how come the State plays ducks and drakes with the properties of the temples in the country.
Whatever the results of the judicial probe into the temple land scam in Andhra Pradesh, the controversy brought to surface a much larger question. Is it Constitutionally right for the secular State to administer temples and their properties?
