THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Raising the slogan of religious freedom for Hindus, the Hindu Aikya Vedi will launch strong agitations against the LDF Government’s bid for temple takeover in the state. The Vedi leaders are of the view that the takeover of the Parthasarathy temple at Guruvayur was a test dose of the government before planning to take over all other major temples presently outside the control of the devaswom boards.
It has also been pointed out that while the government continues to say that Devaswom Board is an autonomous body, the ordinance to dissolve the Travancore Devaswom Board points to the fact that the government is using the boards as a cover to take over the temple and manage its assets.
Hindu Aikya Vedi state president K P Sasikala told ‘Express’ they were planning a state-wide agitation to liberate temples from non-believers and the government.
“The leadership meeting to be convened at Guruvayur on Wednesday will discuss the road map of the agitation. Hindu community leaders, sanyasins and Sangh Pariwar organisation leaders will attend the meet on Wednesday,” she said. The agitation will turn out to be a long-drawn-out fight to liberate Hindu worship places from the clutches of the government, she said.
Vedi general secretary R V Babu said they were planning to hold a convention tentatively on November 25 or 26. “The convention will evaluate the situation and discuss the scope of spreading the agitation to all parts of the state,” he said.
Babu said even if the government takes over a temple, it cannot keep the temple under its control permanently. The Supreme Court, while delivering a verdict in the Chidambaram Temple case, had ruled the government should return the temple to its original owners.
He said the government’s claim was that the temple was taken over by the Malabar Devaswom Board and it had no control over the temple. But the same government is dissolving the Travancore Devaswom Board citing corruption and mismanagement.
Babu said corruption was cited as the main reason for taking over of the Parthasarathy temple.
“But the Thiruvananthapuram Vigilance Court, while considering a case recently, had observed that Devaswom Boards were the most corrupt institutions in the state. If that be the case, how can the government ensure that the board manages the temple in a corruption-free manner?” he said.