States: Kerala: Temple Tantrums

The LDF passes a bill on the election of Devaswom Board members and plunges Kerala into a fresh round of political and religious discord.

Most temples are cash-straved but it has not made their control less covered

When the state Government passed the Travancore-Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions (Amendment) Bill in the Assembly last week, it was bound to ruffle feathers. In keeping with the professed atheist credentials of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), the bill sought to do away with the provision that only Hindu MLAs "who have faith in temple worship and God" could elect or nominate members of the powerful Devaswom Boards of Travancore and Cochin which administer over 3,000 temples. Until now, it was mandatory for Hindu MLAs who form the collegium to elect the members to submit a written declaration that they had faith in temple worship and God. But now the left parties can fill the boards with their nominees without filing the declaration.

LDF POINT

ťThe letter are spirit of the principal act is being restored.
ťNo real change. Only believers in temple worship can become electors of board members.
ťThe bill abolishes conditions which were imposed earlier with political motives.

COUNTERPOINT

ťPaves the way for confirmed atheists to take control: VHP
ťEven a bishop or a maulvi qualifies to manage a temple: VHP
ťThe LDF is only trying to score a political point: Opposition UDF

The opposition parties are livid. The United Democratic Front (UDF) sees the bill as the latest attempt by the LDF to score over the UDF on the issue of temple control-it was the UDF government under K. Karunakaran that had made the declaration of faith mandatory under the principal act in 1993. The Congress declared that it was a black day in the state. "It is a naked attempt by non-believers to dabble in temple affairs at a time when the country's atmosphere is surcharged with communal tension," says A.K. Antony, Congress leader and former chief minister. "The bill would hurt the sentiments of the Hindus."

More than the hurt, it was the anger that showed. Hindu organisations in the state, which also observed February 24 as a black day, went as far as to file a petition in the Kerala High Court to get the bill quashed. "It puts the future of temples in uncertainty as it paves the way for confirmed atheists to take control. We will oppose the bill tooth and nail," vows Vishwa Hindu Parishad Organising Secretary Kummanam Rajasekharan.

Accusing the Marxists of making concerted attempts to get into various temple committees across the state, the Hindu groups pointed to the controversial takeover of the Sivagiri Mutt at Varkala in 1996. "While the LDF fears touching an institution belonging to any other religion, it has no qualms about Hindu organisations," fumes Rajasekharan.

According to Govindh K. Bharatan, the lawyer representing the Hindu groups, the bill is damaging from another sensitive angle: it defines as Hindu anyone who is a Hindu by birth or conversion and professes Hindu religion. "In that case, even a Christian bishop or a Muslim maulvi who undergoes a brief customary rite for conversion qualifies to manage the temples," says Bharatan, who is also a trustee in the state unit of the VHP. "Why should non-believers in temples be allowed to sneak in?" asks J. Sisupalan, convener of the Hindu Aikya Vedi, an umbrella organisation of various Hindu groups.

The Government has no answers to such questions. "There is no change in the practice that only those who believe in temple worship and God can be Devaswom Board members," is all A. Neelalohitadasan Nadar, Devaswom minister, says. "The bill only does away with similar conditions imposed with political motives."

It is not as if the LDF, more specifically its main constituent the CPI(M), has so far been denied representation on the Devaswom Boards. In fact, whenever the LDF has been in power, it has been the CPI(M) which has got its nominee-T.R. Bhattathiripad, E.M.S. Namboodiripad's brother-in-law-appointed president of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB). But after the declaration of faith was made mandatory in 1993, the CPI(M), CPI and other left parties like the Revolutionary Socialist Party could get their nominees on the boards only through MLAs belonging to the non-atheist parties of the LDF.

The CPI(M) has for long been wanting to put an end to this. The first move in the direction was made in 1997 when it tried to fill the three-member TDB with LDF nominees after the two posts held by UDF nominees fell vacant at the end of their tenure. However, its efforts were thwarted by a petition filed in the high court by the pro-Congress Temple Employees' Association on which a full bench observed last year that no nomination should be made to the TDB overlooking the provisions of the Act, including the mandatory declaration by the MLAs. Though the LDF Government subsequently filed an affidavit promising to comply with the law, it preferred to leave the two seats in the TDB vacant. The board is still being run by its CPI(M)-nominated president.

Not surprising then that the passing of the bill is being seen as the latest chapter in the LDF-UDF temple wars. Significantly, all the temples in Kerala, barring the ones at Sabarimala and Guruvayur, are starved for funds but that has in no way made their administration any less coveted. "If only the energies are spent on the betterment of the shrines," a devotee visiting one temple remarked. But clearly, the parties' involvement in temple affairs is confined to being a political statement. Even now, as all eyes are on the high court, the LDF is keeping its fingers crossed that the court will uphold its amendment and not cause any embarrassment to the Government. But the UDF believes it will have the last laugh.