Temple administration must be freed from political control: BJP

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 8 (IANS) BJP national executive committee member Kummanam Rajasekharan on Saturday said that the appointment of K. Jayakumar as the new president of the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) should mark the beginning of a larger reform to free temple administration from political control.

Jayakumar, a former Chief Secretary of Kerala, has been among the few bureaucrats who enjoyed the trust of successive state governments and was given key posts even after his retirement in 2012.

Veteran BJP leader and former Mizoram Governor Rajasekharan said the government’s decision to appoint a respected bureaucrat to the post was a long-awaited acknowledgement of devotees’ demand to de-politicise the management of temples.

However, he added that the issue would not be resolved merely through a change of leadership.

“The permanent solution lies in freeing temples like Sabarimala from government control,” he said.

Alleging large-scale corruption, misappropriation, and encroachment of temple lands, Rajasekharan called for stringent action against those responsible.

“The Devaswom Board has over the years been reduced to a political satellite of the ruling front. It must be restored as an autonomous institution upholding the principles of Hindu dharma,” he said.

He criticised the state government for using temples as platforms for political gain.

“Those who neither believe in temples nor in God have been appointed to key positions in the Board. This has turned temples into instruments of propaganda, undermining their sanctity,” Rajasekharan said.

He added that the fundamental principle that temple wealth belongs to the deity has been forgotten.

“Instead, it is now treated as a commercial asset handled with greed and material interest. The recent Sabarimala gold theft has deeply hurt the faith of devotees. Officials who looked at the gold only in terms of its weight and value failed to see what the devotees saw — the presence of the divine,” he said.

Rajasekharan blamed the current Devaswom laws for the deterioration in temple governance.

The BJP, he said, demands amendments to the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act to ensure that temple management is handed over to boards representing devotees and guided by faith-based principles.

Echoing similar views, Union Minister of State for Fisheries George Kurian said that Communists are basically atheists, and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s move to appoint Jayakumar was “just an eyewash after being caught on the back foot over the large-scale theft of Sabarimala temple gold plates.”

–IANS

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