Oped»
Holy corruption
FEB 02 -
Temples are supposed to be the abodes of gods. But is that reason enough to allow these semi-godly places of worship autonomous status? What is the definition of a temple or any place of worship? Are they the real abodes of god? If not, why give a distinct identity to the place of worship with different nomenclatures? And why do mortal men fight to control the places they should be worshipping? Does god live in a watertight compartment, a mute spectator of the clashes between different groups of followers? These and other tricky questions regarding temples call for proper answers.
I feel this eternal religious struggle of mankind for supremacy over other faith has been going on since the age of the self-proclaimed prophets and avatars who made thousands and thousands of followers. Even after the vanishing act of these prophets and avatars, these blind devotees spread their respective faiths. In other words, it was an act of totally mistaken notions, which people don’t like to forsake and follow a policy of universal brotherhood to keep peace and harmony instead.
In this confusing scenario, new temples are being built day in day out on private and government lands, which are fearlessly encroached upon by unscrupulous and thoroughly corrupt hypocrites. Hindu temples ought never be built on the foundation of stolen property. It is estimated that several hundreds acres of land have been encroached upon by thousands of temples built in Nepal and elsewhere as well. Despite the policy of secularism followed by the political parties, no government has been able to stop the mushrooming of these temples or to demolish those which have been built on encroached land.
Another surprising factor is that such temples are not exclusive place of worship but multi-purpose — as a place of worship and as a residence of pujaris or the founders of the temples. So they serve dual propose of the so-called godly men. By living in a temple they are spared of all the hassles of life — i.e. paying of tax, filing of proper returns, audit of their huge offerings in cash and kind.
So a temple becomes a “suraksha chakra” kind of fortification for them. On a conservative estimate several thousand crore rupees are lying locked in such temples. Some financial experts even conclude that if such huge wealth is taken over by the government then central government’s fiscal deficit can be completely wiped out in one go. Rather, there will be surplus funds available and also cash starved projects.
But, sorry to say, our government has absolutely no policy for the regulation of these temples. The government should immediately come out with strong policies to control and halt such illegal activities, sooner rather than later. And to uproot this problem, we should have a proper system of auditing and registration of temples much as Christians have a system for auditing their churches.
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