Mumbai/Kochi, May 26: The Travancore Devaswom Board ( TDB) of Kerala has issued a circular warning the office bearers about the setting up of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Shakha or its activities in 1,248 temple premises. In this circular dated May 18, it has been said that if this happens, action will be taken against the office bearers of the concerned temple.
It is noteworthy that the Travancore Devaswom Board administers the Temples of the state. From this circular of the board, a new Kerala story of the CPM government’s plan to occupy the temples has come to the fore.
The circular states that apart from religious events, social and political activities will not take place on the temple premises. It is significant that the first such circular issued by the CPM government in Kerala in 2016 was ineffective. After this, TDB working under the control of the state government issued a new circular on March 30, 2021. Despite this, Sangh branches continued to be established on some temple premises.
Devaswom Board officials say that not only the Sangh, but no other organisation and political party will be allowed to organise any other event on the temple premises apart from worshipping rituals.
There is a lot of resentment among the people associated with the temple and the local citizens against the CPM targeting the TDB with a gun on its shoulder.
CPM leader K. Ananthagopan is the President of the Travancore Devaswom Board. The TDB Board was formed under the Travancore Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions Act of 1950.
All the rituals of the famous Sabarimala Temple are also conducted under the direction of this board. Because of this, the CPM is keeping an eye on the income from temples. That’s why the Left government wants to keep the volunteers of the Sangh away from the temple premises.
A former office-bearer associated with the Kerala Area Protection Committee claimed that the leftist governments had been grabbing agricultural land belonging to temples by declaring them as wasteland. Meanwhile, the work of renovation of temples started under the leadership of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Nevertheless, the Kerala Area Conservation Committee was constituted for the maintenance and conservation of the temples.
A former TDB office-bearer has claimed that the Left government promotes anti-Hindu agenda with temple money. In 2020, the CPM government decided to appoint Arabic language teachers in schools under the Travancore Devaswom Board, while it did not appoint a single Sanskrit language teacher.
