Like Karnataka, other States should also liberate temples from the Government’s control ! : Mr Ramesh Shinde, National Spokesperson, HJS

Editorial comment

• Why do Hindus have to make such a demand ? Why doesn’t the Central Government take cognisance and make a law to free temples from Government control ?

Mumbai – Recently, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai declared freeing all temples in Karnataka from Government control. This had been the demand of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) and many like-minded organisations for many years. Mr Ramesh Shinde (National Spokesperson of HJS) has demanded that other State Governments too should free all Hindu temples and hand them over to the devotees.

कर्नाटक राज्य के समान ही देश के अन्य राज्य भी राज्य सरकार द्वारा नियंत्रण में लिए गए हिन्दुओं के सर्व मंदिर सरकारीकरण से मुक्त करें तथा उन्हें भक्तों को सौपें ! – @Ramesh_hjs, हिन्दू जनजागृति समिति@aajtak @DainikBhaskar @AmarUjalaNews @NewsroomPostCom @prabhasakshi @ZeeNews pic.twitter.com/v4QYrq1K2x

— HinduJagrutiOrg (@HinduJagrutiOrg) January 3, 2022

Mr Ramesh Shinde said in a press release,

1. Before the Assembly elections in Karnataka, the BJP had announced this in its previous election manifesto. Today, many State Governments in the country, as well as the Central Government, are privatising their establishments because they cannot run them properly. Many Government-run industries are being sold. In such a situation, we were constantly raising awareness about why only Hindu temples are being brought under the Government’s control.

2. In the last 75 years since Independence, the Congress party, which has not uttered a word regarding the Government takeover of mosques and churches in the country, has strongly opposed the liberation of temples in Karnataka. Unfortunately, Congress is opposed to liberating temples from Government’s control and this is its ‘perverse intellect’. Karnataka Congress leader DK Shiv Kumar has said that the temple is the property of the Government. Has Congress ever dared to say that ‘church or mosque is the property of the Government’ ?

3. On 6 January 2014, a Bench of Supreme Court Justices Dr BS Chavan and Sharad Bobade, while delivering a landmark judgment in the case of Shri Nataraj Temple in Tamil Nadu, had said, ‘The secular Government of the country does not have the right to run and acquire Hindu temples, but only to return the temples to the devotees or the society by removing the shortcomings in the temple management’. The Central and all the State Governments must act accordingly.

4. Once Hindu temples are freed from Government’s control, they need to be properly managed. Only devotees of God can become good managers. In this regard, HJS has also demanded that the State Government should hold discussions with Shankaracharya, Dharmacharya, trustees of temples, Hindu organisations, Akhada Parishad, Saints, and mahants.