It seems that in the Indian state, the rules of secularism always falls upon the shoulders of one community and the other seems to be enjoying the Rooh-Afza of Indian secularism. At the latest, it is Waqf Amendment Act that has grabbed the socio-political discourse of the country. After being passed by both the houses of the parliament and approved by the President of India, the Waqf (Amendment) Act of 2025 recently reached the Supreme Court, where Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna posed a question to the central government: If the Waqf Board, a Muslim religious institution, must include non-Muslims, will the same standard be applied to Hindu religious bodies? Would minorities, including Muslims, be allowed to govern temples?
This isn’t just a legal query it’s a mirror held up to the nation’s selective secularism. While there’s a media and legal storm over non-Muslims on Waqf Board, there has been a long, documented history of non-Hindus being appointed to key roles in Hindu temples across India, often without similar uproar. If India truly believes in equal treatment, why is it normalised in one case and condemned in the other?
Here are the 13 major instances from 2013 to 2024 where non-Hindus some openly affiliated with other faiths were placed in administrative, ceremonial, and even leadership roles in Hindu temples and festivals.
Take the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), for example. One of the most sacred Hindu institutions, it has seen repeated instances of non-Hindu appointments. In August 2023, Bhumana Karunakar Reddy, linked to the Christian-identifying YSR family, was appointed TTD Chairman. A resurfaced video of former CM Y.S. Jagan Reddy’s mother admitting they visit temples only “for Hindu votes” didn’t help public sentiment. Yet, the appointment stood, largely without legal resistance.
In January 2023, three Christian teachers were automatically posted at the TTD-run Sri Venkateswara Higher Secondary School in Tamil Nadu. While technically a bureaucratic transfer, the fact that a temple trust school was filled without any religious filter did not go unnoticed.
In 2020, an Assistant Executive Officer, A. Rajasekhar Rao, tasked with overseeing donation boxes in Tirupati, was revealed to be attending church and praying to Jesus despite officially identifying as Hindu. Video evidence stirred debate, but the larger issue remained: if religious loyalty matters for Waqf, why not here?
Back in 2018, the TTD itself revealed 44 of its employees were Christian most hired between 1989 and 2007. Despite being entrusted with daily temple operations, no system had been put in place to vet their religious backgrounds, exposing a long-standing neglect of spiritual safeguards.
Also in 2018, Christian MLA Vangalapudi Anita was appointed to the TTD Trust Board. In a televised statement, she said, “I carry a Bible wherever I go. I am a Christian.” Still, her position in a Hindu religious trust was defended on “secular” grounds.
In 2017, Snehalatha, a Deputy Executive Officer in TTD’s welfare wing, was found regularly attending a church using her official vehicle, refusing prasadam, and yet continuing in temple service. These actions, had they occurred in a Waqf office by a non-Muslim, would likely have sparked public and legal backlash.
But the trend goes far beyond TTD. In 2024, a Muslim man, Mr. Nawaz, was appointed to oversee Brahmotsavam festivities at Shri Avimukteshwara Swamy Temple in Karnataka. Despite being entrusted with one of the most sacred events of the temple calendar, there was minimal mainstream opposition.
In 2023, Abid Hussain, Ayub Khan, and Yusuf Khan were removed from their posts at Maa Sharda Temple in Madhya Pradesh. Their removal only came after public protests, raising questions about how they were hired in the first place. In 2021, the Himachal Pradesh government appointed Jashan Deen and Shakeen Mohammad as langar sevadars at the revered Maa Jwalamukhi Temple. Temple board members strongly objected, but the appointments were made regardless. In 2019, the Srisailam Temple in Andhra Pradesh had 17 non-Hindu employees, including Muslims and Christians, working in the administration. This wasn’t a clerical error this was systemic.
In 2017, Firhad Hakim, a Muslim minister in West Bengal, was appointed Chairman of the Tarakeshwar Development Board, which oversees the 288-year-old Shiva temple. The appointment was eventually withdrawn after criticism, but it revealed an underlying trend: non-Hindu oversight of Hindu heritage isn’t new it’s institutionalised. In Kerala, the Devaswom Temple Trust’s constitution was amended in 2018 to remove the clause that the head must be Hindu. The government later called it a drafting error, but the political messaging was clear: religious neutrality can override religious tradition at least when it comes to Hindu temples.
Perhaps the most striking case came in 2013, when Azam Khan, a senior Samajwadi Party leader, was appointed chief of the Kumbh Mela, Hinduism’s largest spiritual gathering. After a tragic stampede, he resigned, but the decision to appoint a Muslim political figure to manage a deeply sacred Hindu pilgrimage event left many baffled. All these cases point to one undeniable fact: non-Hindus have routinely been appointed to powerful positions in Hindu religious institutions without equivalent resistance, litigation, or media outrage. If that is constitutionally acceptable and socially justified, then why is there so much noise when the same is proposed for Waqf Board? If Hindu institutions have been subject to cross-religious appointments under the banner of secularism, isn’t it only fair that Waqf Board opens up similarly? Or will equality continue to be selectively applied?
