DC Debate: Drill on temple premises?

Restore temples to devotees

The RSS should give back the temples in Kerala to the devotees. It is time for the believers to come forward and kick the shakhas out of temples. For the past few years,  the RSS has been misusing the Hindutva tag to attract youth.  Hindutva ideology has nothing to do with  Hindu religion. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar,  who coined the term Hindutva,   claimed that Hindutva is a  ‘political project.’  The RSS in Kerala also has a financial agenda and  it is using shakhas as a cover for this. Hinduism is the faith by which the  majority of Keralites live. Hindutva ideology is an attack on Hinduism and an attempt to thwart the efforts to protect secularism.  The conduct of Shakhas at temples run by devaswom boards and other temples has virtually turned the temples  into storehouses of arms in Kerala.

Just like the Islamic State is misusing the mosques, the  RSS in Kerala is misusing the temples. The modus operandi of all these organisations is similar. Just like the NDF or Islamic State, the RSS is also misusing religion. The government should take steps to save temples from the clutches of RSS activists. A close reading of the recent turn of events will make us understand that faith could be misused as a justification for mistreating other people. Any government committed to protecting  the interests of faith and belief will only go ahead with the ban on shakhas and the activities of NDF in mosques.

The state at present is fighting a battle against the terrorist activities of these organisations. I strongly believe that  only the believers can  save the temples. The government can only aid them. We all know what happened at Golden Temple during  Operation Blue Star.  Any attempts to misuse temples for storing arms should be curbed. As mentioned earlier,  several shakhas have a financial agenda. They have no plans to protect the devotees. At present,  there are more than 5,000 shakhas in the state. What the RSS wants is money,  and using  muscle power the RSS has overtaken the affairs of temples.

At present,  several committees running the temples are under the grip of RSS activists. In Palakkad district,  I have received complaints from devotees of at least  two temples.  They start shakhas and slowly gain complete control of the temples.  The affairs of the Kodungallur temple is another example where Vedi Vazhipadu licence and others are auctioned off for huge sums. The temples run by RSS activists are also known for corruption. Those who question the temple accounts are silenced by the activists. They often resort to violence.

There are several instances of activists beating up whistle-blowers. This condition should change and we should create a situation where devotees can visit temples without fear. History shows us that the photos of Jawaharlal Nehru and others besides those of Gandhiji were  used by RSS activists for target practice with fire-arms etc. The RSS or the BJP is a distant third when it comes to  electoral politics in Kerala,  but over the years the various governments had failed to track the activities inside temples. The time has come to put an end to the hooliganism on temple premises.

M.B. Rajesh, Author is Member of Parliament (Palakkad)

A CPM  self goal in Kerala

The CPM has exposed their double standard and prejudice yet again, by indicating a ban through a Government order on RSS shakhas on the premises of Devaswom temples.  The move by the government is nothing but a political stunt to wreak vengeance on their principal political opponent in the state – the RSS.   The CPM has realized, after the state election, that even though they were successful in forming the government, the two percent decrease in vote share is indicative of their decline.  The CPM apprehends that the BJP will emerge as their principal opponent in the state and end their free run. This fear has spawned the move for such an arbitrary and frivolous order devoid of any logic or reasoning.  The CPM leadership and their government are crippled with short-term memory and subjective bias.  They intentionally forget that even Parliament had paid homage to RSS mentor Guruji Golwalkar after his demise, hailing his contributions to the nation. 

The Congress government, headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, had invited the RSS to participate in the national Republic Day parade in 1963.  So the newfound allegation against the RSS of indulging in armed training is a piece of fiction born out of frustration of a government, fast losing in political space to RSS.   The Left Government is hoping to appease minorities and make political mileage, not realising that Keralites at large have the political acumen to see the drama. The RSS has never indulged in arms training.  There is no complaint against the RSS in this regard.  CPM burdened with the baggage of a redundant ideology has lost the trust of the Indian society.  The Left parties- CPM with a minuscule vote share of around 3 percent and CPI around 1 percent- have hit the nadir in Parliament. 

So the present move of the Left government, aimed at restricting the growth of RSS, without any acceptable legal or statutory backing, is the last attempt of a political party to salvage itself from political extinction. The RSS, unlike the CPM, has the tradition and reputation of responding to issues not by violence or muscle power but through legally established means. After the embarrassing and cold response to CPM-led Ganesholstavam and Shobayathra, the party has realised that the core strength of the RSS is its work and engagement with the people.  So to restrict the RSS and its public interaction, CPM has by dubious means planned a Government order.

History stands testimony to the fact that institutionalised and non-institutionalised attempts such as the CPM violence against Karyakarthas in Kerala to restrict and overpower the RSS had only nurtured their growth and CPM will have to cut a sorry figure for this futile attempt. RSS has survived all negative propaganda, including previous bans, and proved its abiding relevance to Indian society through its voluntary public service.  Any attempt by the CPM-led Government to suppress the growth of RSS in Kerala will boomerang and hasten the Marxist doom.  The public will surely nip in the bud this blatant misuse of government power and brute cadre assertion.

P.S. Sreedharan Pillai (Author is former State president of BJP)