[Reader-list] Another Shrine, Another Time

[rashneek kher]

Dear Shudda,

Not just Hindutva which you hate Shuddha.All religious institutions whether
Mecca or Vatican are good business propositions.
Orgainzed religion is like institutionalised crime....

Regards

Rashneek


On 7/3/08, Shuddhabrata Sengupta <shuddha at sarai.net> wrote:
>
>
>
> Dear All,
>
> Since we have all been discussing mountain shrines, injured Hindu
> honour, temple boards and shady deals. I thought that a little
> clipping filed away in my archives may be both entertaining and
> instructive.
> I had mentioned the affairs of the Sabarimala shrine in Kerala
> earlier. Here is a news item that appeared in the Hindustan Times in
> January 1999, about another mountain shrine. This time, its Badrinath.
>
> No wonder Hindutva is such a good business proposition.
>
> No further comments. Enjoy
>
> Shuddha
>
> _______________________________
> Badrinath shrine cases get political
> http://uttarakhand.prayaga.org/news-1999-1.html#0ae
>
>
> Joshimath, January 10 (HT Correspondent)
>
> THE AFFAIRS of the 10,300 ft-high Badrinath shrine, the highest for
> religious merit, have become bogged down in court cases, as a result
> of BJP attempts to use its rich revenue of crores of rupees in
> pilgrim offerings for the benefit of its organisations and also that
> of the RSS.
>
> The Allahabad High Court last month dismissed the new Badrinath-
> Kedarnath Temple Committee, nominated by the BJP-led Government of UP
> by its notification of September 2, 1998, on a writ petition filed by
> members of the previous committee, whose term was to run until August
> 26, 1999. The High Court in its order of December 1, said the
> previous committee was given "no opportunity of hearing" before its
> term was cut short.
>
> The new committee, set up by the BJP-led state Government, went to
> the Supreme Court, against the Allahabad High Court ruling but the
> highest Court on December 18, rejected its petition, according to Mr
> Kushla Nand Sati, a member of the previous committee and a petitioner
> in the High Court, who is a resident of Joshimath. The new committee,
> loaded with low-level RSS and BJP workers, in a month of its
> appointment, began doling out funds from the pilgrim-offerings to
> deities of Badrinath-Kedarnath temples, to functions and institutions
> of their own organisations, according to Mr Sati. The new committee
> allotted Rs 21,000 from these temple-offerings to a RSS workers' camp
> in Meerut in October and Rs 5,000 to each Saraswati Shishu Mandir
> (children school in the region, manned mainly by the RSS cadre), Mr
> Sati said in a statement issued here.
>
> The new committee promoted a number of its employees including one to
> the post of its Chief Executive, in violation of rules of their
> appointment. They bought a new car for Rs 5 lakhs which Mr Sati said,
> "Was placed at the disposal of the wife of the Chairman of the new
> committee, Mr Vinod Nautiyal of Pauri, to take her to Dehradun for
> the delivery of their child and remain there for her use." Mr
> Nautiyal is a Pauri RSS worker.
>
> The old committee, the term of which was abruptly cut short last year
> was headed by Mr Romesh Bhandari, the former UP Governor. Mr Sati,
> who was in that committee which is supposed to take charge again,
> unless the UP Government issues a fresh order after giving a hearing
> to its members on why their three-year term needed to be cut short,
> said here today that the committee office located in Joshimath had
> become a den of corruption, with some of its employees including the
> Superintendent, remaining drunk all the time.
>
> The irreplaceable and invaluable Kedarnath temple pinnacle, of gold
> and reported to be 5,000 years old, was stolen in 1996. Till then, no
> serious efforts have been made by the committee to recover it or
> trace the culprits. The rumour in this area is that the theft was
> committed with the knowledge of some committee employees.
>
> In 1994, the committee bought five buses for Rs 36 lakhs and in three
> years lost Rs 11 lakhs on running them. The committee officials'
> telephone and travelling bills run into thousands of rupees and are
> allowed without serious scrutiny, ignoring the fact that the money
> comes out of the offerings of poor pilgrims, according to Mr Sati. He
> called for the appointment of a High Court judge to inquire into the
> mismanagement of the Badrinath Temple Committee funds and said that
> the management of these highest temples in the north should be
> patterned of that of other rich shrines of India.
>
> These were contributing to the education and welfare of not only the
> people living around them but also of others all over the country.
>
> "Badrinath shrine and the town that has grown around it, must be the
> most mismanaged one in the country," Mr Sati said.
>
> Shuddhabrata Sengupta
> The Sarai Programme at CSDS
> Raqs Media Collective
> shuddha at sarai.net
> www.sarai.net
> www.raqsmediacollective.net
>
>
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-- 
Rashneek Kher
Wandhama Massacre-The Forgotten Human Tragedy
http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com
http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com