The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leadership is meeting seers and saints across the country to seek their guidance in evolving an alternate management structure.
The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) Saturday (November 27) demanded a central law to free temples and Hindu institutions from government control. It also demanded a national anti-conversion law.
As part of the guidance-seeking programme and the consultation process, Shri Alok Kumar, International Working President of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), and other office-bearers visit South India.
It said, “The Board of Trustees of Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) is of definite view that the Hindu temples and religious institutions should be freed from the Govt. control. The Temples in Bharat have been the nuclei of social, religious, and cultural activities of the Hindu society and the secret of the enduring nature of Hindu Nation and immortality of Mrityunjay Bharat.”
“Hindu devotees visit temples to internalise the sanctity and serenity of the place and contribute their offerings so that the educational institutions, health services, festivals, religious and social projects/activities run by the temples could be run in an apt manner. Therefore, besides conducting the daily sacraments and related activities, the temples have remained in vanguard supporting the society in times of crisis and emergency,” it further added.
In the two-day meeting, VHP office-bearers t had passed a resolution pressing the same demands in Haryana in July this year.
Shri Alok Kumar had said, “Illegal religious conversion is a national curse and the nation must get liberated from it. In 11 States, for its prevention, there are laws, but the problem and conspiracy are nationwide. This international meeting is, therefore, of the unanimous view that a central law should be made against it, and only then there will be freedom from this curse.”
He had added, “From some verdicts of the Hon’ble Supreme Court and also the present experiences and situations, the message goes absolutely clear that the central government should not delay the matter anymore.”
Shri Alok Kumar had urged the Hindu society “to remain ever watchful about the anti-Bharat and anti-Hindu conspiracies of the Mullah-Missionaries, and prevent it by all constitutional methods.”
The properties and finances of the Hindu temples and institutions are used for other purposes by different state governments. Governments have controlled the Hindu religious institutions since British times. For this purpose, Madras Hindu Religious Endowments Act, 1926 was enacted.
VHP said, “The government cannot be the owner of the temples. The governments and the courts of law can have some minimal necessary role, when required. What and how much would be that role must be considered by all stakeholders.”
The Madras High Court on Saturday (November 27) said the temple property belongs to the temple deity only, and the donations offered must be used only for temple work.
VHP also called upon the “Tamil Nadu Government to enact an Anti-conversion law, to prevent conversions of Hindus by various other religious institutions under threats, undue pressure, allurements and false promises.”
