Govt. Move to Take over Famous Sree Padmanabha Swami Temple

The Marxist led LDF government of Kerala has started back door planning to take over famous Sree Padmanabha Swami temple from the current temple trust controlled mainly by the Travancore Royal Family.

Communist party is planning this move through some of the trusted mediators who have good connection with the Royal family. Since all the involved parties know well that any move to touch Sree Padmanabha swami temple will create tension in Thiruvananthapuram and will invite strong protests from Hindus all over Kerala, the discussions are going on secretly without inviting public attention.

Devotees hearing this news are now determined to stop this move by tooth and nail and not to let give the famous temple which has crores of assets in its name to the communist led government . Temple have lot of properties in and around Kerala in the form of buildings as well as real estate. Other than this there are huge collections of Diamond, gold and silver as well as rare pieces of pooja items inside the temple.

The temple is very famous for its discipline and strict and unique ways of conducting poojas as per the rituals dictated by the Vilwamangaluthu swamiyar. Till this day the predecessors of swamiyar follows the same age old traditions without fail. Once the government takes over the temple, there is a huge chance of all these pooja getting sabotaged and politicians led board dictating norms to government as we see now in the case of Sabarimala and Guruvayur.

Recently when a controversy was raised related to opening one of the jewel den of Lord Padmanabha, court intervened and took an initial stock of all valuables available.The assets were so huge that the government officials who came were really shocked which prompted the Government to take over the Temple now.

All devotees in Kerala are very well aware of the plight of major temples like Guruvayoor and Sabarimala, which are now controlled by politicians in the name of Devaswom board. These politicians are only interested in looting the wealth of the temples and the money donated by devotees as various offerings to the temple. Sree Padmanabha devotees fear that the same situation will happen here and they want to stop this at any extent. They are saying if by any chance Royal family is having issues running the trust they should handover the same to a new trust formed under the guidance of leading spiritual and god fearing people from Hindu associations and from among devotees of temple. Devotees are planning a big protest in this regard.

There is a pending dispute reg. the governance of the temple in Subcourt 1 and the court is going to start proceeding related to this today. The court in its earlier directive from Judge Sri Vasavan has asked the governments interest in taking over the temple. According to reports from reliable sources, government has prepared an affidavit showing interest in taking over the temple. As per government, the Travancore royal family has no legal or religious rights. Government is planning to put the argument in the following way.

As per temple records, during the Malyalam year (kolla varsham ) 925 and Makara Masam 5th Sri Marthanda varma Maharaja donated his entire wealth and Travancore state in the name of lord Sree Padmanabha. As per this record, the owner ship of temple and its assets lies with lord Sri Padmanabha. This is also mentioned in Travancore guardian act which treats gods/ idols as minor and need court approval for any kind of transactions related to temple. It also mentions that any one including Raja who has donated money to the temple will have no rights as per this act. The temple and associated properties were already donated to Lord and hence royal family has no say in this matter as per Government.

As a ruler of the old Travancore state, the Travancore family had rights on the day to day governance of the temple till independence. After that they lost the rights. To make the rights of the family on the temple formal, an amendment was brought by Govt of India on 1971 which gave special Raja title to few of the old rulers. This title need to be given by president of India and the deceased Raja Sri Chithira thirunal was the last person in the Travancore family who held that title. The current Raja Marthanda Varma doesn’t have the title from the government. The reason for his ineligibility is he was not a ruler of the Travancore region when India got independence. Supreme Court also has confirmed that this is a requirement to award title in one of its verdict of similar nature.

The temple is not a private property of Raja and this is also clearly mentioned in the registration details of the trust at Pattom registration office. The trustees as per the registration held on 1965 Aug 12 are the deceased Raja Sri Chithira Thirunal, Sri Marthandavarma Elayaraja and secretary of Raja Sri Vaidyanatha Iyer.

As per the 1949 pact done between Travancore and Kochi and Indian Union, Srichithira Thirunal who was the Travancore Raja was declared as the Rajapramukh and he held the title till his death. After his death on 1991 the Travancore family lost its say in the trust and doesn’t hold any rights now. The LDF government is playing the current dirty game using this loop hole in the trust laws.

As of today the day to day affairs of the temple are still managed by Travancore royal family led by Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma Raja

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