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'Prasadam' sets temple board nominees in Kerala quarrelling

George Iype in Cochin

The ruling atheistic Marxists and other Left Democratic Front members, self-proclaimed custodians of rich Hindu temples in Kerala, are engaged in ungodly battles to control and administer the temple management boards.

In the eye of the storm are two of the country's biggest temple boards -- the Travancore Devaswom Board and the Guruvayoor Devaswom Board -- whose chairmen and members are nominees of the Communist Party of India, Marxist, and other LDF constituents like the Janata Dal, Secular, and the Republican Party of India.

The TDB administers a large number of temples, including the famous hilltop shrine of Sabarimala. But the TDB's CPI-M-nominated chairman, V G K Menon, and its two board members -- Charupara Ravi and D Sasidharan, nominees of the JD-S and the RPI, respectively -- are battling over the spoils of office.

While Ravi and Sasidharan have raised serious corruption charges against the TDB chairman, Menon accuses them of "playing politics" to oust him and has refused to convene the TDB executive committee till they apologise.

Interestingly, the allegations of corruption against Menon pertain to 'aravana payasam' and 'appam', the two favourite offerings of millions of devotees to Lord Ayyappa at Sabarimala.

The TDB members allege that before the holy season began at Sabarimala in December last year, Menon awarded the lucrative contract for cooling and packing aravana payasam and preparing appam to a private company without the board's consent.

"We objected to the contract because we feel that there is no need to modernise the production of aravana payasam and appam," Sasidharan told rediff.com

But despite repeated requests, the TDB chairman went ahead with the project. "It is an illegal, irreligious act. Therefore, we demand Menon's removal as TDB chairman," Sasidharan said.

But the TDB chairman denies the allegations. "There has been no irregularity in the deal. It is politics at play. I will not call any further meeting of the board till the two members apologise for leveling baseless allegations against me," he told rediff.com

Menon said the two board members wanted to usurp the chairman's powers. He said Ravi and Sasidharan had made several "arbitrary" transfers and postings and "tampered with official files" in his absence.

A similar war of nerves is on in the Guruvayoor Devaswom Board, but it is between the communist board members and the devotees.

The GDB recently filled vacancies on the editorial board of the temple's spiritual magazine Bhakthapriya by appointing local CPI-M members and activists. Thus, three members of the editorial board are CPI-M activists while the party's local committee member, a well-known atheist, doubles up as assistant editor of the magazine.

Sick of the wrangling for power to control temple boards, the devotees are now demanding that political nominees of whatever hue should not be appointed guardians of Hindu shrines. "It is a disgrace to devotees that atheists are running the temple boards in Kerala. It is a sin that they are battling for money and power in the holy precincts of Hindu shrines," K V Ravindran, a Vishwa Hindu Parishad member, told rediff.com

He said the Centre should ban atheists and members of any party from becoming members of temple management boards in Kerala. "It is a dangerous signal for devotees that politics has entered temples in the state," he added.

Many say the Marxists' clout on the temple boards has increased after they won a legal battle over Hindu believers last year for managing and administering some of Kerala's richest temples. The Kerala high court dismissed a petition filed by the VHP and the Kerala Kshethra Samrakshana Samiti [Kerala Temple Protection Council] asking for "irreligious Hindu politicians" and ministers being banned from temple administration.

The petition sought to ensure that only Hindu ministers and legislators who believe in god and temple worship have the right to nominate members to the various temple management boards in the state.

But in a landmark judgment, the court upheld the state government's argument that Hindu ministers and politicians need not be believers in temple worship to nominate members to the managing committees of temples.

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