CM Pinarayi Vijayan justifies govt takeover of Guruvayur Parthasarthy temple
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday said there were two major interests behind the outcry about state government taking control of Guruvayur Parthasarthy temple. In a statement here the Chief Minister said one was to create communal polarisation in the society saying that there was no respite for temples. Secondly it was to provide an opportunity to the vested interests to make money through their corrupt practices. Mr Vijayan said the government was confident that the people of the state would not get misled by this propoganda. A section of people were propagating that the temple had been taken over unilaterally with an ulterior motive. However, this has no relation to truth.
The government has not taken over the temple. But it has been taken over by Malabar Devaswom Board which is responsible for the care of temples. The board took over the temple following court directive that came in the wake of the big corruption. The board only executed the High Court directive. The CM said there was no point in attacking the government and the board for complying with the court order with good intention.
There is no basis in saying that the temple was functioning under an independent system. It was functioning under the 1951 Madras Hindu Charitable Endowment Act. Though it was under the Act , the responsibility of running the temple was entrusted with a special committee. There were allegations that the committee was not running the temple properly and there was corruption as well. In the wake of such complaints, there is a provision under the Act to declare it as public temple. That too after giving enough time for evidence collection and listening to the views of different parties. The allegations related to temple came before the high court in 2010 when a petition was filed by a group of local persons representing the devotees and the staff of the temple.
They sought directions from court to hand over the temple to the board. The court asked the devotees to submit a petition under Malabar Devaswom Act 57 (A). Subsequently 30 devotees submitted an application and on the basis of it Malabar Devaswom Commissioner declared the temple as public temple on May 23, 2016.A one member Trust was also appointed. The court verdict was later challenged by persons who were not part of past committee and the team included Hindu Aikya Vedi district president. Initially the high court granted stay but later upheld the declaration on public temple. The court rejected the decision to constitute one member trust. The Chief Minister said that the government does not want to take over the temple but would strongly take on the corrupt. The government is currently thinking about extending help to temples facing financial problems.
