Left Democratic Government led by CPM, the party which keeps on swearing in the name of dialectic materialism hence atheism and keep on drafting and passing resolutions after resolutions in this regard are taking shameless steps to take over temples and run them under the banners of Dewaswom Boards, the government machinery to control the revenue of the temples. The latest is the Malleeshwaram temple, run and maintained by tribal Vanvasis in Attappadi, a large tribal zone in Palakkad district of Kerala. The Malabar Dewaswom Board has appointed some sycophant and formed a new trust to run the temple. And, there are allegations that the new trustees are corrupt.
The Attappadi Malleeshwaram temple in Chemmannur is several centuries old. It is an inseparable part of the life of people of 192 Vanvasi orrus (villages), their traditions and culture. Since time immemorial the temple belonged to the people of four oorus, namely Osathiyoor, Kollamkatavu, Ambannurm and Pottikkal. A group of Vanvasis belonging to the four oorus have been running the temple according to their own traditions and rituals; now, the new trust which took over the temple administration in the second week of January has started interfering in the traditions of the Vanvasis. The tribal villagers allege that the trustees impose in the temple the rituals followed by the other temples and this weakens the faith of the Vanvasis. The moopans, the chieftains of the orrus, allege that the Board is poking its nose into the Vanvasi temple’s affairs unnecessarily. They allege political interests behind this move.
BJP State president Kummanam Rajasekharan alleged that government is keen to take over the temple with good revenue. They are not at all sincere in the well being of the temple, otherwise, they would have taken over ‘poor temples’ with less income hence struggling hard to make both ends meet. Money is the only factor they have in mind.
Kummanam is right. A few months back, Malabar Dewaswom Board took over Parthasarathi temple in Guruvayoor in a midnight operation while the whole Guruvayoor township was fast asleep. Kummanam challenged the government to take over Christian churches which have remained closed since several decades due to disputes among various Churches. There are several mosques also facing the same plight. But, the government does not dare to touch them, thanks to the organized vote bank and minority rights both Christians and Muslims enjoy.
No doubt, the latest trend has been undergoing a significant acceleration after former BJP man OK Vasu Master of Kannur, who joined CPM recently as a result of lure and temptation, was made the president of Malabar Dewaswom Board. He was accepted by CPM when he was ousted from BJP due to severe violations of disciplines.
The Hindu organizations in the state should analyse these steps of CPM government seriously; otherwise, it will be a great threat to the ‘freedom of worship’ of the Hindus.
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