Where are all the Pro-Hindus?
In the land where the children of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Sant Tukaram and Sant Gyaneshwar lived, the Law Minister, Mr. Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, has shown the daring to announce that his Govt. will take over about 2 lakh Hindu temples.
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Keraleeya Kshetra Paripalana Kendra Samiti, Maharashtra (Regd.) the apex body of Keraleeya temples in the state is the first organization to protest against the move to take over temples when the then Law and Justice minister Minister,of Mr. Govindrao Adik, asked the 13th Law Commission to draft a Law to take temples and Hindu religious institutions into the government’s control.
The anti-Hindu bureaucrats posted in the secretariat of the Maharashtra Government who were earlier working in the secretariat of South Indian states (Where temples are nationalized) brought to the Notice of the Govt. of Maharashtra that temples can be a huge resource of revenue for the state.
In the year 2005, the leaders of Hindu Organizations opposed these recommendations. and met the then Governor of Maharashtra, Dr. Mohammed Fazal, upon which the Governor warned the Government that it should not interfere in religious and charitable activities. Thus, the Government was forced to put this matter aside.
Consequent to the Stampede incident of the Pune Mandhara Devi temple, leading to the death of 253 pilgrims in 2005, the then Chief Minister Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, directed the Chairman of the 15th Law Commission, Mr. D.N. Choudhary to draft a law to take over temples. The commission, in its report, has proposed the ‘Maharashtra Temple and Religious Institutions (Administration and Regulation) Bill 2006. ’
But the Enquiry Commission appointed by the Govt., under the chairmanship of Justice Rajan Kocher, to enquire into this accident later on reported that the stampede took place because of an electric cable breaking and causing a short circuit which made pilgrims panicky. For which thus the Electricity Board was responsible and not the Temple authorities.
More than 500 corner meetings, and Dharma Sabhas were held in various parts of the state lead by Hindu Janajagruti Samiti. Devotees of the Keraleeya temple of the city organized a Keraleeya Hindu Bhakta Sangamam at Powai in April, 2008 to demonstrate their protest on against this issue and submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister.
However,the Government had already taken over Prabhadevi Siddhi Vinayak Temple the largest Ganesh Temple of the country. Later on, the temples at Pandharpur, and Shirdi Sai Sansthan were also taken over by the Government.
Maharashtra, the Janm and Karma Bhoomi of Poojya Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, St. Tukaram and St. Gyaneshwar Maharaj have a deep rouoted and powerful Hinduism.
The state has numerous Hindu organizations and political parties. There are about 20,000 Ganesh Mandalies and crores of Ganesh Devotees in this state who collect crores of rupees from the public and celebrate Ganesh festival. Where were these GANESH BHAKTAS when the Government affixed its stamp on the doors of the largest Ganesh Temple of the country?
According to the Law Minister Mr. Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, now the Government proposes to take over temples on the issue of misappropriation of donations and, improper administration. The Siddhi Vinayak temple, now controlled by the Government, has become world famous because of the Justice Vijay Tipnis Commission’s inquiry against mismanagement. . Money collected from these temples are distributed in the area of the secular vote Banks. Altogether, it can be said that the Government sees the temple as an industry and not as a place of devotion or worship.
It is a hard time to realize that the Muslims and Christians get religious education at their place of worship. If the Hindu temples are taken over by the Government then there will be no platforms for the children of Hindus to learn about their religion.
The Karnataka Government had passed a similar law in 1997, and took over 2,64,000 Hindu temples. The trustees of those temples unitedly fought against this Law and in Sept 2006, the Karnataka High Court declared the law unconstitutional and ordered that it should be abolished. This gives and apt example that of how unity brings about the apt results for the start of a revolution.
In Maharashtra, as a result of protracted agitations by Hindu organizations, the Government. had kept this issue in cold storage owing to the general elections in 2009 for fear of losing Hindu votes. Now the Government has been re-elected to power with more majority and the they wants to satisfy the secular vote bank by capturing the Hindu temples, whilst leaving alone the mosques and churches alone.
Most of the Hindu temples are constructed with the donation of rupees of the hard earned money of the middle class and poor devotees. A majority of the temples are presently run by the charitable trusts and the funds governed by the Bombay public trust act and the societies registration act, 1860. The charity commissioner is a body functioning under the Government of Maharashtra. It is quite unfortunate that the Hon. Law Minister himself has declared that this authority is notorious for corruption.Under the circumstances, how can the minister offer a corruption free administration of temples by the Government.
Another draconian proposal of the government is to present a bill in the assembly to impose Maharashtra Narabali Yowan Shoshan Amanavi Aghori Practices Adhiniyam 2005. This is a shock to the 85 lakhs Hindus of the country.
This is basically an anti- faith bill against the Hindu rituals. The attempt to bring the Maharashtra Eradication of Black magic and Evil and Aghori Practices Act 2005 was defeated on the floor of the Assembly in the year 2005 itself. Now the same bill is proposed in the New name called (Maharashtra Narabali Yowan Shoshan Amanavi Aghori Practices Adhiniyam 2005). While narababali is a punishable offence under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, why a separate law is required in the State of Maharashtra. The hidden threat to Hindu religion and temples in this law is as under:-
1) This bill speaks about divine power, anti- faith, mantra tantra etc. All these are related to the Vedas and Upanishads., but these terms are not defined in the bill. So anything can be brought under the purview of the law by
mis-interpretation.
2) The bill has a provision to confiscate materials used for mantra-tantra. The bill has provisions to confiscate the documentary evidence or books used for such practices (which are the Vedas and Upanishads)
3) The bill gives power to a police inspector to search the premises where the related documents or books are suspected to be kept. This empowers a police inspector to search the sanctum of Hindu temples in which only the priest have entry.
4) This bill does not exclude the rituals performed in Hindu temples.
5) This bill does not define what is Divine power and what is not Divine power.
6) While drafting this bill the Hindu religious leaders and temple committees were not consulted.
7) This bill shall prohibit hypnotic treatment, snake poison treatment, healing of mental disease by yoga and meditation, Divine relief imparted by sanyasins like Mata Amrutananda mayi Devi.
8) This bill empowers the arrest a priest or tantrik or sanyasi who performs a ritual if the person who spent money for the pooja does not get the result. (financial hurt)
9) This act can prohibit anaesthesia medicines and, medicines used in legal abortions, unless otherwise specifedspecified in the act.
10) Piercing of the ears of Hindu children, eradication of ghosts from the human body, sudarshana havan, aghora havan, shatru samhara havan specially performed in south South indianIndian temples etc. can be termed as offences under this act. This goes to indicate that for performing such rituals, henceforth, police permission will be required. Thus the bill gives chances for commencement of “ police hafta†in temples also. .
11) The nomenclature of the bill itself creates fear and havoc among the Hindus as it indirectly states that Hindu rituals contain a lot of aghori practices. And the miracles of Divine power in Hindu rituals are ‘ so called’†and not the real.
It is not known as to why the govt. is attempting to impose a new act exclusively on the temples. Certainly, it is not because of more devotion or increasing faith in God.
Hindu devotees should realize that the Maharashtra Narabali Yowan Shoshan Amanavi Aghori Practices Adhiniyam 2005 is a preamble of the temple take over Bill. The Government wants to curtail the poojas conducted by people outside the temples so that the income of the temple will increase and it will benefit after the take over episode.
Offences under this Act, upon conviction, will be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months but which may extend to seven years and a fine. Where an offence under this Act has been committed by a company or trust, every person, who at the time the offence was committed, was in charge of or any director, manager, secretary or any office bearer shall be liable to be punished accordingly.
Also, the offences punishable under this Act shall be cognizable and non-bailable. A as there is no clause to exclude performing religious rituals and, poojas in Hindu temples.The temple priests and administrators can be booked for trial under this law.
Under the Act, issuance or publication of an advertisement, literature, article or book relating to or about aghori practices are called propagation of Divine power and it is punishable. Thus even a normal brochures issued by the temple committees can be challenged under this law.
It is declared that religious rites and rituals which adversely affect any person mentally, physically or financially can be offenced under this law . Can any religious rituals guarantee 100% results?. Hindus believe only in doing Karmas without expecting any result. The results come as blessings from God later on. If a pooja or rituals does not give instant results, it can be regarded as having an d adverse affect, & or being F financially or mentally hurt.
Thus the Government expects that the draconian provisions of this law will compel the temple administrators to give up their positions to avoid the risk of running the temples after passing this bill. This will make the way for free entry of the Government to the temple administration.
As per this law, the miracles which cannot be proved by science is a superstition. Jagad Guru Adi Shankaracharya, Mata Amrutananda Mayi,. Satya Saibaba, Sant Dyaneshwar and many Saints have performed miracles in their lifetime. Even today many miracles are seen in Ganagapur, Shani Singapur, Kailas Manasarovar, etc. The appearance of Lord Ayyappa as Jyothi on the eastern Horizon on the Makar Sankrant day at Sabarimala in Kerala is a miracle which cannot be proved by the science so far.
The bird Garud accompanying the procession carrying the Ornaments of Lord Ayyappa is also a miracle of God. In Maharashtra, there are about 85 Ayyappa Temples propagating these miracles and they take about 3 lakh devotees per year for on a pilgrimage to sabarimala to witness these miracles. Once the law comes in force, these temple priests and administrators can be booked for the offence of propagating superstition.
Also, there are thousands of references and the mention of miracles in almost all the Hindu religious books. Are all these claims of miracles going to be considered untrue/false under this Law?
Therefore there is absolutely no need for a separate Law. If somebody feels that the punishment given for these crimes in the Indian penal code is not adequate then the Government has the right to amend the existing laws. For the current provisions refer to the Indian Penal code (I.P.C.) sections 319–326, 299,302,508,117, 497, 417 etc.
In this act it is considered a crime to believe and spread information about divine power. Hence all the religious books, e.g. The Vedas (Also the 4th Ved, i.e. Atharvaved consists of many Jadu-Tona i.e. Black magic methods), The Gita, Upanishads, the Mahabharat and the Ramayan, would be banned and the Saints who spread their message shall would be arrested under culpable and punishable for offence under this act, for of propagation of divine power.
If a devotee performs a ritual in a Temple temple by paying money and if he doesn’t get instant results, it amounts to mental hurt. Thus he will have a right to approach the court, under this law, for a refund of his money. This law is also capable of declaring Saints and Mahatmas as mentally retarded as they always live a in spiritual life and, away from the normal human life.
REMEMBER, MAHARASHTRA IS THE STATE WHERE MORE GREAT HINDUTVAVADI REVOLUTIONS HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN THE HISTORY. THIS BILL IS A ‘TEST DOSE’ TO THE HINDU RELIGION. ONCE IT IS HAS SUCCEEDED IN THIS STATE, IT WILL BE EXTENDED ALL OVER INDIA. THUS THE GENERATION OF ABOUT 85 LAKH HINDUS WILL HAVE NO FREEDOM TO PERFORM THEIR RITUALS AND WORSHIP THE GOD WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF THE GOVERNMENT.
So the need of the hour is the unity of all Hindus and Hindu temple trusts. There are about 4.50 Hindu Temples and religious organizations in the state. If they unite, irrespective of political ideologies, the Government shall have no courage to make pass an law of anti- faith law or to take over temples. If each temple can unite 10 Hindus on this issue, the voice of 45 lakh Hindus can turn against the Government.
BUT, WHERE ARE THE HINDUTWA WADI SOLDIERS OF THE SOIL OF CHH.SHIVAJI MAHARAJ ??? AND WHERE ARE THE GANESH BHAKTAS OF MUMBAI ???
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