Good Salaries to All Hindu Priests

                       BHARAT     RAKSHA       MANCH

       PAY GOOD SALARIES TO ALL HINDU PRIESTS & PLACE MANAGEMENT OF

                     HINDU TEMPLES UNDER ELECTED COMMITTEES.

        Executive Summary: Every year thousands & thousands of crore rupees are being diverted by Governments in India for non-Hindu purposes whereas every year many pilgrims die of deficiencies in temple infrastructures. In 2011 over 100 pilgrims to Amarnath died and during June 25 to July 15, 2012 over 80 died in accidents/lack of facilities.

         India is a secular country but the Government of India and provincial  Governments under the Congress Party or other political parties have been targeting only Hindu temples for government takeovers  in name of better management leaving aside all mosques, churches & Gurudwaras etc as if there has been no complaint against the latter.

       Singling out only Hindu temples for government takeover is discriminatory, violates principles of secularism, and, deprives the Hindu community of their constitutional rights [Articles 25 and 26] to manage their own religious affairs.

         State takeovers have resulted in bureaucratic lethargy, gross mismanagement and embezzlement of temple funds, closure of many temples, encroachments, sale and alienation of temple lands etc.  which is causing resentment among Hindus.

       Many State governments are not using the income from Hindu temples exclusively for the cause of temples and to promote Hindu religion, and, keep diverting temple earnings into general budgets doing very little for benefits of Hindu pilgrims who offer donations to temples & Hindu priests.

           

    Under no circumstances a Hindu shall ever be treated less favourably than any religious minority and all laws which stipulate less favourable treatment to Hindus shall be repealed through ballot boxes.

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                                                            Full Text of Letter to Prime Minister

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               Sub: Pay good salaries to all Hindu priests of any caste & gender.

Dr. Man Mohan Singh

Hon’ble Prime Minister,                                                                                September 11, 2011

Dear Prime Minister

          India is a secular country but the Government of India and provincial  Governments under the Congress Party or other political parties have been targeting only Hindu temples for government takeover in name of better management leaving aside all mosques and churches as if there is no complaint against the latter two. Singling out only Hindu temples for government takeover is discriminatory, violates principles of secularism, and, deprives the Hindu community of their constitutional rights [Articles 25 and 26] to manage their own religious affairs.

2.      How could officers of a secular government manage religious institutions of any community, it is a self-contradictory proposition. Due to government takeover, persons with no devotion and no deep knowledge about Hinduism, and even non-Hindus and communists who have nothing to do with any religion land up in governing bodies of Hindu temples.  As non-Hindu officers too become Chief Secretaries of State governments situation arises when a non-Hindus lord over management of Hindu temples through government controlled boards.

      For example in the Board of Trustees of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple there are at least seven officers of the UP Government in ex-officio capacity who need not always be Hindus so we may even find Muslim and Christian officers sitting on the Board of trustees of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple.  So we may have beef eating officials sitting on boards of Hindu temples hurting religious feelings of millions of Hindus. No non-Hindu should be allowed to sit in governing bodies of Hindu temples as government nominee.

3.     Well known Hindu temples including those at Puri, Tirupati, Guruvayoor, Kashi, Mathura, Ayodhya, Badrinath, Kedarnath, Vaishno Devi, Mumbai (Shree Siddhi Vinayak Temple), Shirdi, Amarnath, Srisailam, Madurai and Rameshwaram etc are already under government’s control and plans are afoot to grab more temples. State takeovers have resulted in bureaucratic lethargy, gross mismanagement and embezzlement of temple funds, closure of many smaller temples, encroachments, sale and alienation of temple lands, and dismantling of temple infra-structure which is causing resentment among Hindus.

3.1   Many State governments are not using the income from Hindu temples exclusively for the cause of temples and Hindu religion, and , keep diverting temple earnings into general budgets and misusing temple earnings for non-Hindu purposes leaving many Hindu temples into dilapidated conditions and doing very little for benefits of Hindu pilgrims who offer donations to temples.

           

      For example annual earnings of the Tirupathi temple is over Rs 3500 crores but only about 15% of this amount is reported to be spent on this temple and rest i.e. about Rs 3000 crore is diverted every year by the State government of Andhra Pradesh to non-Hindu purposes leaving Hindu priests poorly paid and Hindu pilgrims poorly looked after in terms of travel infrastructure, medical, hostel, food service facilities etc. This fund among others should have been used to give better salaries to all Hindu priests attached to temple or freelance.

       We regularly get reports that so many hundreds of Hindu pilgrims died in stampede here in this temple or there in that temple because of infra-structural deficiencies.

         It is reported that Andhra Pradesh government headed by late YS Rajsekhar Reddy [a Christian] brought Christian institutions into the decision making body of Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam (TTD) and its institutions. JRG Wealth Management, a Christian organisation was employed for ‘Prasadam’ materials for use in Tirupati temple. So, beef eaters are/were handling ‘prasadam’ materials of the Tirupathi Temple.

And in 2006, the centuries old, 1,000 pillar Mandapam in Tirumala complex is reported to have been demolished by the Congress Government.

          In several districts of Andhra Pradesh, thousands and thousands of acres of land owned by government controlled temples have been sold, alienated, gifted and permitted to be grabbed by land grabbers though the government has no right to do so since it is not the owner of temple lands, it is only temporary custodian. It is reported that only 18% of other temple earnings are released by the AP Government for temples and the remaining 82 per cent is diverted to non-Hindu purposes.

      In Bhadrachalam and Simhachalam, hundreds of acres of temple land have been given to Christian organisations. The Endowment department of AP has sold over 1,600 acres of Srisailam Temple land to various missionary organisations. 

   

      And in 2005, 245 acres of prime land belonging to Seetharama Chandra Swamy temple at Devarayamjal was sold at throwaway price causing huge loss to the temple.

3.2 In Kerala, State control has rendered innumerable temples into poor state. Under the Kerala Land Reforms Act, over 12,000 acres of Guruvayoor temple’s land has been reduced to a few hundred acres only. And in Sabarimala, 2,500 acres of temple land has been sold by the government board.

3.3 In Orissa also the administration has been selling Jagannath temple endowment lands.  The temple management from 1952 has been taken over by the Odisha government and the management has no elected representatives of Hindus and all are appointees of the government. In 2011-12 temple earning is expected to be Rs 59.6 crores but actual expenditure on maintenance will be much less and about Rs 26 crores will be added to the corpus fund of temple rising to Rs 182 crores leaving Hindu pilgrims high and dry.

3.4 In Rajasthan land and revenue of many Hindu temples have been misappropriated by government controlled bodies/functionaries.

3.5 In Jammu and Kashmir, even Mata Vaishno Devi Temple University created with the funds of Vaishno Devi Temple does not have Hindu religious studies in its curriculum.

3.6  In Karanataka, Rs. 79 crores were collected from about two lakh temples and from that, temples received Rs seven crores for their maintenance.  Rs 50 crore was given to mosques.

3.7 Bihar government’s control over the temples through its Hindu Endowments Department has resulted in the loss of temple properties worth Rs 2,000 crores.

 3.8 Annual income of the Kashi Vishwanath temple was Rs 4.9 crore in the year ending March 31, 2010 including offerings of Rs 3 crore, and, annual expenditure was Rs 72 lakh. Facilities for pilgrims are minimal. Temple fund stood at Rs 34 crores.  

4.   Since temples belong to Hindu society which has built and maintained them over the centuries, these must be restored to Hindu community as like other communities, Hindus too have a constitutional right to manage their places of worship. Independent boards comprising of Hindus elected by Hindus alone must govern all Hindu temples and shrines as is the case with places of worship of other communities.

5.  The Bharat Raksha Manch at its National Executive meeting held at Jaipur passed the following resolution among others: “The Congress Government of Narsimha Rao connived with Imams in the Supreme Court and the government advocates soft peddled the public interest before the Court with the result that about 5lakh imams are getting their salaries and perks from the Wakf Boards funded by grants from the Government of India right from December 1993 [AIR 1993 SC 2086]. No Muslim country in the world pays any Haj subsidy to Muslim pilgrims but the Government of India pays subsidy to the tune of Rs 800 crores a year.  It is totally communal and retrograde. No priest should get salaries from the government or all priests from every religion should get”.

6. Since your government is paying salaries to all Muslim Imams through Wakf Boards it is requested that all Hindu priests too should be paid good salaries. We are going ahead to enroll Hindu priests interested in receiving salaries. We are ready to discuss issues involved with officials you may wish to nominate.

With kind regards

Yours Sincerely

OP Gupta

National Working President, BRM

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                  There has been no reply to above letter from the Congress Government.

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[1]        In the above judgment it was held that Imams are entitled to emolument even in absence of statutory provision in the Wakf Act and the Supreme Court directed the Govt. and Central Wakf Board to prepare Scheme within period of six months. So Hindu priests are also entitled to similar facilities but so far they have not got justice as Hindu parliamentarians they voted paid lip services to them.

        The above judgment was given by Judges K. RAMASWAMY AND R.M. SAHAI. Ramaswamy was found to be guilty of corruption and impeachment proceedings in 1992-93 in the Parliament was initiated to dismiss him but he was saved by the Congress Party. Kapil Sibal  a Minister in the Man Mohan Singh Government was advocate defending Ramswamy in the Parliament.

   In 1993 PV Narsimha Rao the then Prime Minister had declared that this decision of Supreme Court would cost about Rs 600 crore annually as grant/subsidy to wakf Boards. Vajpayee government continued with payment to Imams.

     According to Asian Age [October 5, 2005] imams all over India were in for a surprise bonanza of up to Rs 3 lakh each in form of arrears in terms of the 1993 Supreme Court ruling. Man Mohan Singh was Prime Minister in 2005.

     In August 2010 Congress Government promised to Parliament that it would take appropriate action to implement Supreme Court's observations regarding payment of salaries to Imams  of government-aided mosques. Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee gave the assurance to the Lok Sabha on a Zero Hour mention made by RJD chief Lalu Prasad. Prasad wanted to know the reasons for the delay in implementation of a 1993 Supreme Court judgement on a petition of the All India Imams Organisation relating to salaries of Imams in government-aided mosques and remuneration to clerics in non-aided places of worship.

         CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat, who met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on January 20, 2011, told reporters that she was informed that Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khursheed has been told to work out a scheme for payment of salaries to the Imams as per the directives of apex court. "Wakf boards do not have any funds and the government will do whatever is required to implement the Supreme Court judgement on the issue," Mukherjee told Karat when she raised the matter with him.

       Smt Indira Gandhi gave Rs 30 lakhs and Vishwanath Pratap Singh gave Rs 40 lakhs to the Jama masjid, Delhi and another Rs 98, 89, 941 was spent on Jama masjid from 1990 to 1996 by PV Narsimha Rao all from the Archaeological department funds.  This shows Congress & secular Hindu leaders have been ill treating Hindu temples.

[2] In April 2012, Mamata Banerjee,  Chief Minister of West Bengal announced free education to children of all imams, 3 cuttah of homestead land, heavily subsidized housing and honorarium of Rs 2500 per month to all imams of mosques & madarsas over and above  what they are already receiving [Rs 2500 pm] through the West Bengal Waqf Board. West Bengal official records show there are a total of 12456 mosques out of which only about 1400 are registered with the government with 30,000 imams. But the Jamait Ulema-e- Hind State President claims there are about 67000 mosques with over 1,00,000 imams. Muezzins will get honorarium of Rs 1000 per month.

[3] Andhra Govt led by Congressman YS Rajsekhar Reddy, a Christian, started giving financial assistance to Christians going on pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

[4] The Jayalalitha Government of Tamilnadu in newspapers of May 16, 2012 publicised that she had raised monthly pension of Muslim Ulamas and that in one year her Government spent Rs 1 crore in giving financial assistance to Christians going to Jerusalem for pilgrimage.

[5] Recently management of Sai baba shirdi was taken over by the Maharastra Govt.

[6]The BJP Government of Karnataka allocated Rs 5 crores for salaries to Imams. [Hindustan Times, July 14, 2012 page 8]

The state government of Madhya Pradesh increased grant to Wakf Board from Rs 60 lakh to Rs 80 lakh. Grant to masjid committee was increased by Rs 25 lakh in year 2011-12.

In Delhi Alims got a monthly salary of Rs 3,000, Hafiz Rs 2,800, Nazirah readers Rs 2,700 and Mu’azzin Rs 1,900 [March 2007data] through Delhi Wakf Board.

[7] Thus the Hindu priests have been showering their votes & blessings on such jaichandi Hindu politicians who on one hand have been party to looting of temples by silence or connivance, and, on the other hand have been harming interests of all Hindu priests. All Hindu priests must follow the commandment of Holy Gita not to bless unworthy ones.

[8] Elected Temple Management Committee shall use temple funds to pay good salaries to priests, raise guest houses for free stay of pilgrims for two nights, set up hospitals for free treatment of pilgrims & Hindus, set up college reserving 50% seats for free education of BPL Hindus, teaching Vedic richas which sanction social unity & social harmony emphasizing equality of all Hindus by birth, widow remarriages  etc. Hindu priests interested to receive regular salary should register themselves with Bharat Raksha Manch at brmanch@gmail.com and opg55555@gmail.com .

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