Author: Ambreesh Mishra
Publication: India Today
Date: May 23, 2010
URL: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/98267/States/A+matter+of+faith.html
Introduction: The Chouhan government's move
to appease a seer known to be close to the Congress has upset many sadhus
who have traditionally supported the BJP
It's a sparring match featuring the most unlikely
combatants. In one corner is Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati,
the popular seer from the Mahakoshal region. In the other is the BJP Government
led by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The third entity comprises thousands
of sadhus and pujaris who are demanding an umbrella law to streamline the
management of temples and mutts and the vast properties they control.
When it acquiesced to the Shankaracharya recently,
the Chouhan Government managed to avoid a stand-off with the seer. Barely
a couple of days after taking a tough stance over the expansion of the Shankaracharya's
ashram near the ancient structure of Sankla Gufa in Narsinghpur district of
Mahakoshal, Forest Minister Sartaj Singh backtracked and approached the Dwarika-Sharda
Peeth Shankaracharya to resolve the dispute.
The reconciliation hardly pleased the followers
of Dandiswami Mohananand Saraswati, head of government-appointed advisory
board for temples and mutts, who is perceived to be close to the BJP, while
the Government keeps pleasing a seer who is seen as Congress-leaning.
"The Government bent over backwards to
accommodate Swami Swaroopanandji's wishes. When the sadhus and pujaris had
gathered to demand a just deal a couple of years ago, they were thrashed by
the police in front of the chief minister's house," says B.L. Tiwari,
the VHP's key liaison with the sadhus and seers in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Of the 64 recommendations sent by the board,
none has been accepted so far. These include a new law as well as amendments
to 11 existing laws that concern bodies like trusts and cooperatives to streamline
the functioning of temples and mutts.
After being ignored for over two years, the
board passed a resolution in February, condemning the Government's apathy
towards its proposals.
The strength of the 65-member body has come down to 38 as many stopped attending
its quarterly meetings as they thought the Government had set up the board
in 2007 to bide time, not resolve issues.
Some of the key demands include a complete
ban on ad hoc auction of temple lands for cultivation by the government to
realise land revenue. The Government is in charge of the properties, upkeep
and finances of a category labelled as government-run and government-maintained
temples and mutts.
The temporal matters of these 14,000 temples
in the state with about 1.5 lakh acres of land were passed on to the Government
via district collectors on account of large-scale complaints against mismanagement
of finances of the temples' earnings through properties and donations.
When the BJP came to power in 2003 in state,
priests and seers hoped that the party would heed their demands. The Chouhan
Government set out to resolve the demands through a Sant-Pujari-Mahant Sammelan
in Bhopal in December 2006 and managed to defuse the situation. In April 2007,
the demands were raised again, prompting the Government to announce constitution
of the advisory board. "The Government is not in a mood to introduce
the law. It wants to retain control of vast temple properties even as thousands
of priests survive on a pittance," says Tiwari.
Over the last few decades the state Government
has taken over some of the most important religious seats like Maihar in Satna
and Mahakaal in Ujjain with huge incomes.
The Government-run and maintained temples
mostly date back to the British period when they were patronised by local
royalty. After Independence, they were passed on to the Government and are
handled by the Religious Trusts and Endowment Department, which pays up to
Rs 500 monthly honorarium for priests.
A proposal in the offing is to cross-subsidise
the poorer temples with rich ones since there is a limit to which the Government
can plough public money into temples. However, members of the advisory board
allege that the Government takes more than it gives back to the temples and
mutts. "We represent 1.10 lakh priests.
The Government has done nothing to improve
the lot of priests. They cannot ignore our demands," claims Narendra
Dixit, president of the Madhya Pradesh Pujari Mahasangh.
This time around, the Government's own advisory
board members are striking a discordant note because they feel short-changed.
While the seers may be split along political lines, temporal affairs of temples
and mutts will continue to toll warning bells.
