The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has set a hallmark in Tamil Nadu, and struck a chord not just with Tamil Hindus, but with Hindus across the country. The party, in its manifesto for the upcoming Tamil Nadu elections has promised to rid Hindu temples of government control, thus paving the way for temples to be run and administrated by the community, instead of the state. South India in particular, and Tamil Nadu specifically, is home to thousands of grand temples which unfortunately are being run by lethargic bureaucrats like a public service business venture. The BJP, if voted to power, is all set to change the same.
“The administration of Hindu temples will be handed over to a separate board comprising Hindu scholars and saints,” the BJP’s manifesto for Tamil Nadu read. Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari and VK Singh released BJP’s manifesto. BJP state president L Murugan was also present on the occasion. Interestingly, in the manifesto, the BJP has also promised to bring in an anti-conversion law into force if voted to power. With its 2021 manifesto, the BJP has played a masterstroke in Tamil Nadu, which will affect the state’s politics in the long run, if not immediately.
The government has no business controlling Hindu temples, even while it does not control the places of worship belonging to other communities. Hindu temples have for long borne the brunt of various government’s administrating them in a rather shameless manner, very often to extort their coffers in order to fund the state and its various schemes. That the money belonging to temples often gets split up among the administrators is something which does not need to be explicitly described.
Essentially, Hindu temples are being misused, and must be freed from government control. To that end, the BJP might just be the very first party which has promised to do so, sending a message across the country. The promise of freeing temples from government control has come in the backdrop of the #FreeTamilNaduTemples gaining much traction in the state. Across the country as well, Hindus have been demanding that their temples be freed from state interference and that their administration is reverted back to the community.
With the BJP promising to do the same in its Tamil Nadu manifesto, the demand will only gain further traction across the country. The issue of temples being freed from government control has been turned into an electoral issue by the BJP, and in the foreseeable future, all parties in India will be forced to follow suit due to the overwhelming support the idea of free temples will have across the country. Hindu temples free of government control is an idea whose time has come, and the BJP’s promise of ensuring the same is a glowing testament to the same.
Temples do not need to be told how they must operate and how they must contribute to society. They have been doing so much before the virtue-signallers took birth, and will continue to do so for all times that are to come. Hence, the time for governments exiting temples has come.
Constitution says India is a secular country and that means the government has no business controlling Hindu temples but if you look at the reality India was never been secular country when it comes to the Hindu temples and to Hindu’s in general and Hindus were denied their rights since the independence and it’s been pretty long and Hindus are fast losing patients with political games. Let each & every state free temples from the clutches govt control immediately.
Let’s hope Tamil Hindus gives a chance to BJP and in return have their temples freed.
Total hypocrisy by BJP it controls temples in HP and Uttrakhand, first free those temples.
I was a BJP supporter but I am disappointed in their step motherly behaviour towards Hindus
Aviveki !! You are a BJP supporter. Not anymore because of your shirt sightedness. So keep quiet and watch things change …
When the control of temples goes next to the Hindu community, the other religions institutions will have to start spending the loot and so funding Vatican and terrorism. We will then see their true colours