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Letter to Shri Ashok Singhal ji,
President Vishwa Hindu Parishad
Subject: The
urgency of repulsing the Assault on Hinduism & Hindu religious infrastructure
under a predatory anti-Hindu environment:
Aadarniya Shri Singhal
ji,
We are sending this urgent
memo in the hope that you and the rest of the top Hindu leadership will give
serious consideration to some of the important issues mentioned here facing the
Hindu Samaj in the forthcoming Tritya Vishwa Hindu Sammelan being held at Prayag during February
11-13, 2007.
It is grievously disturbing to
Hindus that despite being over 80% of the national population they are
contemptuously neglected by the present political establishment while the
minorities are bestowed upon unconstitutional special favors in the prevalent
environment of vote- bank politics. The Govt. control of temples is being used
as the central instrument of attack on temples and the poisonous caste based
politics has been made the key to tear the Hindu infrastructure apart.
The current
governments, at the centre and states, are purposely weakening the majority and
blatantly appeasing and encouraging Muslim separatism by following a colonial
policy of divide and rule. They show least concern about the disastrous
consequences of this upside down policy.
Some of the
recent developments have compelled us to approach and draw your kind attention
to this highly disturbing problem. They include: a) The appointment by the
Kerala HC of a three man committee to investigate corruption charges against the
Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), followed by the Leftist Front government in
Kerala issuing an ordinance scrapping the 56-year-old Travancore-Cochin Devaswom;
b) the contentious dredging work on the sacred Sethu Bridge; and, c) the
judgment by the Orissa HC upholding the right of the Dalits to enter temples.
Accordingly we humbly suggest that the issues stated hereunder be seriously
deliberated upon during the forthcoming Hindu Leaders conference at the Prayag.
1) The transfer of the
management, governance and administration of temples in Kerala to the Hindu
community;
2) Exoneration of the Kanchi
Shankaracharya against the false and fabricated charges;
3) Cancellation of
Sethusamudram project to save the historic monument so very sacred to Hindus;
4) Amendment of Article 30
of the Constitution to enable Hindu NGOs spread education amongst masses;
5) Utilizing the Orissa HC
verdict on entry in to temples by Dalits so as to integrate them with the rest
of the Hindu Samaj and thereby preempt the campaign for conversion by competing
religionists.
***A)
It is no secret that the Kerala
Govt. has assumed total control of the Hindu temples in the state and completely
undermined the fundamental right of the Hindu community to manage and govern
these entities
without the interference of the
state. To advance its anti-Hindu strategy lately it has
Scrapped off the Travancore-Cochin Devaswom Act. While the Kerala HC
recently appointed a 3 man committee to investigate graft charges against the
Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), the Kerala Govt. on the other hand promulgated
an ordinance scrapping the 56-year-old Travancore-Cochin Devaswom Act. The
enforcement of this ordinance in particular represents an attempt to curtail for
obvious reasons the powers of the officially created Travancore and Cochin
Devaswom Boards charged with the responsibility of managing most of the temples
in the state. (Attachments A1 and A2).
Taking note of these
developments the Hindus across Kerala and beyond are indignant about the recent
pronouncement by the Marxist Govt. to take over Hindu
Temples and issue
ordinances apparently to loot funds of the Hindu temple. Many of the Marxist
plans are intended to substantially curtail Hindu religious practices, restrict
and downsize the traditional cultural festivals and thereby detach and distance
the worshipers from the Hindu cultural centers with a view to soften them for
proselytizers (attachment A3).
It is believed that the
Marxist Govt. may be contemplating to grab temple lands, gold deposits and funds
for usage to promote its own ideological and institutional goals. In Kerala, the
majority of Hindu temples are already controlled by the Govt. However, the
Muslims and Christians are free to manage their mosques and churches, run their
schools, and manage their funds and properties without Govt. interference or
supervision. They even finance subversive schemes like conversion activities,
preach a litany of hate and turn out thousands of fanatic zealots, yet the Govt.
does not show any concern about such disruptive behavior.
The autonomy
of the Nationalized Hindu religious institutions must be restored and they be
transferred to Hindu Board for governance.
The Kerala Govt. must be warned that:
a) The Karnataka High Court has struck down the Karnataka Hindu Religious
Institutions and Charitable Endowment Act, 1997 as unconstitutional pointing out
that its provisions amounted to “dividing Hindu religion.”; and b) The Allahabad
High Court has directed the Central and UP authorities to prepare a scheme for
constituting a Board for Hindu religious organizations on the pattern of the UP
Muslim Waqf Board. The Kerala authorities by no means can escape the legal and
constitutional implications of these historic verdicts by the premier judicial
authorities.
Furthermore the Indian
Parliament through an Act in 1991 legislated that –“the status of religious
places, as on August 15, 1947 shall be retained". The faithful implementation of
this law itself will require the authorities to respect and maintain the
autonomous status of the Hindu places of worship.
In order to abide by the
constitutional and legal provisions the Kerala Govt. must denationalize temples
and restore their jurisdiction to the Hindu community. Such a transformation
would be legal, pragmatic, non controversial and will be in keeping with the
high ideals of secularism and democracy.
Here are some of the measures
that should be taken by the state during the transitional period to safeguard
the Hindu infrastructure while denationalization is underway:
a) Declare a time table for
ending Govt. control of Temples and for transferring their jurisdiction in its
entirety to an Autonomous Hindu board;
b) Make the endowments department transparent and open to public scrutiny with
immediate effect;
c) freeze all plans and actions in the domain of temples except for their
routine maintenance, pujaris salaries, temple rituals, etc. ;
d) End unconstitutional taxation of temples and diversion of their revenues
right away; and
e) Set up a Hindu Council, nominated by Hindu organizations like Dharma Sansad
and Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha to prevent anti- Hindu management and oversight
and constructive guidance of endowment departments till denationalization is
realized.
***B)
The unconditional exoneration of
Kanchi Shankaracharya;
the Hindu world is deeply anguished by the continued incarceration of His
Holiness, who in spite of the false charges against him, continues to
command respectability and reverence better than the Catholic Pope. Therefore,
in the interest of social harmony, justice and respect for millions of his
followers all efforts must be made to see that charges and the case against him
is withdrawn. That the TN
Govt. has had over two years to furnish credible evidence in support of its case
against the saint yet it miserably failed to do so. The failure of the
authorities itself should have been enough to conclude that the case was a
malicious and a fabricated one intended to hurt Hinduism by falsely implicating
its highest religious leader.
The following
grounds establish without a doubt that in this imbroglio the central underlying
motive was a religio-political conspiracy:
His Holiness has been:
i)
A thorn in the flesh
of evangelists, and he was furious on Jayalalitha’s withdrawal of the
anti-conversion law following her rout in the Lok Sabha elections.
ii)
Days before his arrest, he
had also vehemently opposed the Endowments Act whereby government assumed the
control over temples.
iii)
He strongly supported the
demand for the removal of non-believers and the agents of the competing
religions from temple managements;
iv)
He supported the use of
temple finances for purely Hindu religious causes (i.e., funds from Hindu
temples should not subsidize the Hajj and Church construction and maintenance).
The fulfillment of these
demands would have spun the official erroneous policy out of the orbit and down
the drain.
The Kanchi Shankaracharya is
the foremost spiritual leader of the Hindu faith.
Among the four mutts set up by Adi Shankaracharya, who is credited with reviving
the Hindu religion in medieval India, the Kanchi Peeth is the most revered.
Others include the Dwarka, Badrinath and Puri Peeth. The Shankaracharya was also
in the news as his devotees include the who's who among the politicians and
industrialists. President APJ Abdul Kalam was among the distinguished
crowd.
We cannot sit
idle hoping that "the Law will take its own course" when the Govt. takes up a
partisan role, or the system gets so bogged down to effectively deny justice:
e.g. a) the Bombay blast cases of 1993 after the Babri demolition are still
going on; b) the Bofors case that started in late eighties was going on till
recently when the UPA Govt. finished it off by astute administrative moves. At
this rate the Holy Seer may be dead or physically incapacitated by the time the
case against him is deliberated - thus allowing complete demolition of a great
Hindu institution by a partisan anti- Hindu establishment.
After a lapse of two years
there are strong grounds to mount a public campaign against the TN Govt.
compelling it to withdraw the case, because it has not been able to provide any
credible proof in support of its accusations against the Hindu leader. As an
alternative a request could be filed before the SC of India for dismissing the
case in view of the state government’s outright failure to substantiate its
charges.
***C)
Recognizing its religious and
historic character, the
Sethu Bridge must be
preserved:
The bridge has been revered by the Hindus since time immemorial and has a great
cultural, traditional and historical value. Even the AIADMK supreme,
Jayalalithaa, has opposed the ongoing dredging in this area of Rama Sethu
Bridge, stating that it was a historical monument therefore, must be maintained
intact. A state court under the strictest partisan atmosphere understandably
declined to provide the necessary relief against the ill-advised drudging.
(Attachment B)
Arrest of H.H. Kanchi Shankarachrya
on cooked up charges and installation of the statue of E V Ramasamy Naicker -
Periyar for the devotees of Dravidianism in front of the Rajagopuram of
Srirangam temple with underhand support of Govt. in Tamil Nadu would give
credence to the allegation that the objective of the Sethusamudram project is
the denigration of Hinduism by attacking yet another of its historic icons.
Rama Sethu
Bridge
of the Ramayana times must be classified as religious, cultural, historical and
an ancient monument of invaluable archaeological importance. Unlike many others
this site has immense traditional and cultural value for the vast majority of
Indian citizens. The Bridge has been revered by the entire Hindu civilization
since times immemorial. The age-old belief existing around this historical
monument was recently further validated as factual, true and real by the graphic
satellite images.
It should be noted that Taj
corridor scheme on the banks of river Yamuna, was barred by the Supreme Court on
the ground that it would threaten the historic Taj Mahal; and the Delhi Metro
Rail route was changed when the older scheme was considered dangerous to the
historic Qutub Minar. Unless there are some hidden reasons the same sense of
history, culture and preservation must be applied here.
Dredging work at the
Sethu Bridge,
which is a part of Ramayana and is deeply embedded in the Hindu psyche, hurts
intense religious beliefs and sentiments while causing unavoidably heightened
degrees of distress and deep resentment amongst a billion Hindus worldwide. If
the ongoing destructive process is not stopped right away, not only will the
historic character of the site render itself irreparably and fundamentally
altered - but in future unavoidably there would be highly critical and
unfavorable comments in every Ramayana Katha for generations, that there was a
Congress regime that in utter violation of the sense and sensibility of the
Indian people heartlessly destroyed the age old traditional and sacred Ram Sethu
Bridge.
***D)
The opportunities for spreading Education amongst the
community and masses must not be denied to Hindus. For this purpose the Article
30 of the Indian Constitution needs to be amended. We strongly
suggest that VHP spearhead a campaign to amend Article 30 of the Constitution
for allowing the same benefits and freedom to the Hindu educational
institutions as are provided to such entities belonging to the minority
communities. This Article directly discriminates the majority community
therefore, must be amended to make it non-discriminatory and universal.
The existing discriminatory
intent of the Article seriously impedes the work of Hindu NGOs in the field of
mass education, while the Madrasas with Jihadist outlook threatening the
integrity of the nation thrive.
Furthermore, such discrimination forces some groups to prefer being out side the
boundaries of Hinduism for gaining these benefits which in turn leads to
fragmentation of the community. Ramakrishna Mission had argued on such
lines, though the SC denied its request. Now the Jains are trying to use the
same argument for gaining educational benefits.
Contrastingly the Christians
and Muslims besides enjoying the official patronage receive massive foreign
funds for many activities including running schools and Madrassas while the
Hindus are handicapped by the inequitable laws. Even their own religious
infrastructure is not available to them for spreading the necessary education.
The removal of the ongoing step motherly treatment will go a long way to
alleviate the Hindu institutions and their functioning to the same level as the
similar outfits of other religious formations in the country.
***E)
To realize the objective of the
“integrated the Hindu Society” as a whole the judgment of the Orissa HC on the
issue of the Dalit’s entry in to Hindu temples serves as a landmark verdict and
it should be utilized to the fullest. In this significant
judgment, the Orissa High Court on December 5, 2006 ruled that Dalits have a
right to enter any Hindu temple. This historic verdict opened the gates of the
300 year old shrine of Jagannath temple in Keredagada, Orissa for the Dalits.
The caste Hindus, who heretofore had maintained a belligerent stand on this
issue, finally agreed and recognized the right of the Dalits for worshipping in
the temples and performing puja. (Attachment C).
This unprecedented court
ruling in Orissa provides an invaluable opportunity to VHP workers for
initiating social work amongst the Dalits like Gandhi ji which in turn could
culminate into socio-political and religious rewards. For this extremely
important task VHP may also have to launch and encourage building a dedicated
cadre of volunteers with exemplary skills for goal oriented social service. The
joint worship by the hitherto isolated segments of Hindus accompanied by
economic and educational improvements, enacting laws against conversion and
ending discrimination by amending the Article 30 of the constitution is bound to
usher in a new environment of hope, unity and integration. In order to make up
for the deficit of the media coverage - the Kathas, religious discourses and
cultural festivals could be used for launching these initiatives.
We sincerely hope and believe
that the top brass of the Hindu leadership in the country congregating at Prayag
will find time and opportunity for giving serious consideration to these issues
and come up with a new agenda for activism aiming at generating an enthusiastic
movement with needed momentum and mass appeal for bringing about a new Hindu
awakening.
With respectful pranams,
Dr. Jagan Kaul
Krishan Bhatnagar
Hindu Jagran Forum (USA)
February 07, 2007
Attachment A1
Hindu Press
International: January 8, 2007
Top Kerala Temple Board
Faces Graft Probe
www.gulf-times.com
KOCHI, INDIA,
January 3, 2007: The Kerala High court yesterday set up a three-member committee
to probe corruption charges against a board that runs many temples in the state.
The committee led by former Supreme court judge K.S. Paripoornan with former
Central Bureau of Investigation director D.R. Karthikeyan and former judge
Tulasidas as members has been asked to submit a report on the case against the
Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) within six months. The TDB manages and runs
temples in the southern districts of Kerala, including the Sabarimala temple
which is expected to net revenue of more than US$22 million in the ongoing
festival season that closes on January 20. The autonomous temple authority also
runs a number of schools, colleges and cultural institutions.
The TDB
has been accused of misappropriating money donated by devotees, corruption in
purchases and taking bribes while recruiting staff. The state's Vigilance and
Anti-Corruption Bureau had earlier submitted a report to the government on the
irregularities in the TDB deals. The court said it was the court's duty to
ensure that the money donated by the devotees is not misused or wasted and hence
the order. While welcoming the court verdict, Temple Affairs Minister G.
Sudharkaran said the government would soon issue an ordinance making amendments
in the laws governing the three temple administration boards in the state
Attachment A2
Kerala Govt takes teeth out of Hindu temple body
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/kerala-takes-teeth-out-of-temple-body/top/32524-3.html?xml
Thiruvananthapuram: The Left Front
government in Kerala has passed an ordinance scrapping the 56-year-old
Travancore-Cochin Devaswom Act.
The ordinance is an attempt to curtail the powers of the Travancore and Cochin
Devaswom boards, which manage most of the temples in Kerala.
The decision comes in the wake of allegations of corruption in the Travancore
Devaswom Board, which governs the Sabarimala temple and earns about Rs 70 crore
a year.
"Not only against this, action will be taken against the person involved in
this. There were corruption charges against all boards, except the first and the
second," says Kerala Minister for Devaswoms, G Sudakaran.
The three-member Devaswom board will now include one woman and one member from
the SC/ST community.
The board's activities will also undergo judicial review from time to time. The
government's move has obviously not gone down well with the board members who
have reacted sharply to the issue.
The board has reacted sharply to the government's move.
"We will go to the court now to see that we get justice. The government says the
board is corrupt. Even then what's the need for such an ordinance when you have
a vigilance enquiry on and when already a judicial commission is also looking
into the charges against the board," says a Travancore Devaswom Board member,
Punalur Madhu.
By promulgating this ordinance, the government seems to have drawn the first
blood in its battle against the Travancore Devaswom board.
But now the big question is: how far the government will keep away from the
day-to-day activities of temples in Kerala, which otherwise will have serious
implications?
Attachment A3
HAV protests
Marxist game plan to loot Hindu temples
1/23/2007 12:12:55 PM HK Correspondent
haindava keralam
Jan. 23,2007
Hinduworld.com
Hindus across Kerala are uneasy about the recent pronouncement of the Marxist
government to take over Hindu Temples and ordinances to loot Hindu Temple funds.
Many of the Marxist plans are intended to curtail temple practices, restrict
traditional cultural festivals and to make Hindus easy for proselytizers.
The Marxist
government is planning to grab temple lands, gold deposits and funds for their
own ideological purposes. In Kerala, the majority of Hindu temples are
controlled by the government. Muslims and Christians are free to manage their
mosques and churches, can run their schools, and manage their funds and property
without government interference. They finance conversion activities, preach a
litany of hate and turn out thousands of fanatic zealots without any government
interference.
The Marxist plan
of action against Hindu temples is an unacceptable challenge to Hindus. To raise
Hindu awareness and to protest Marxist plans, Hindu Ayika Vedi have decided to
have several Hindu conventions across Kerala. Temple devotees across Kerala will
organize mass protest in different parts of Kerala. Kummanam Rajasekharan,
General Secretary of Hindu Ayka Vedi has announced that temple devotees from
Trichur district will meet at Paramakavu temple ground on January 25. Temple
organizations and representatives from various Hindu Associations will meet at
Tirunakara Mahadeva Temple, Kottayam on January 27. On February 1, Hindu
leadership conference will be held at Thiruananthapuram.
Kummanam Rajasekharan asked the Marxist government to refrain from their
nefarious activities determined to destroy Hindu temples. He demanded an
explanation and details on the ordinance the Marxist government and the 15 point
formula of the Marxist Devasom Minister to take over Hindu temples.
Hindu temple is
the abode of GOD, the focus for all aspects in the life of Hindus—religious,
spiritual, social, cultural and educational. It is a center where God can be
approached and where divine knowledge can be discovered. All aspects of Hindu
life and culture revolve around Hindu temples. It is time for Hindus to join
together and correct this trend of Hindu temple looting.
Attachment B
1) Another
setback to Sethusamudram project work
Monday, 29 January , 2007, 13:09
Sifynews.com
Madurai: In yet another setback to the
dredging work of Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project, a giant crane sent to
retrieve the spud that broke while trying to cut the "Ramar Sethu" or Adams
Bridge in the Palk Strait has also broken and a part of it had sunk in the sea,
officials said.
The spud of the
"Cutter-Sucker-Dredger Aquarius" had broken last week while cutting the bridge,
dealing a blow to the dredging work. With the crane also broken, the project was
likely to be delayed further, the officials said.
The 150-tonne floating tug crane "Thangam", hired for several lakh of rupees a
day by the project officials, could not pull out the spud and broke in the
process on Sunday.
The crane's
locking-key had broken and it would take another 10 days to retrieve and repair
it.
Officials were now thinking of bringing a bigger crane -Hanuman - having 200
tonne capacity from Visakhapatnam to retrieve both the sunken crane and the
spud.
AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa has opposed dredging in the area of Ramar Sethu
bridge, stating that it was a historical monument.
According to
Hindu mythology, Lord Ram constructed a stone bridge to enable his Vaanara Sena
to cross the Palk Straits to wage war with Ravan, King of Lanka, who had
abducted his wife Seetha.
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14377459
2 ) Plea to stop 'damage' to
Rama Sethu bridge
NT Bureau
News Today
Chennai, Jan 7:
A Civil suit seeking to restrain the Union government from doing anything which
would damage the Rama Sethu bridge of the Ramayana times in the Palk Straits has
been filed in a sub court of Ramanathapuram district by Swami Omkarananda of
Theni Sidbavananda Ashram and the Ramanathapuram district president of the RSS
Kuppuramu.
Hearing the suit on 5 January, the court issued notices to the Centre,
Sethusamudram Corporation and Archeological Survey of India and posted the case
for hearing on 12 January. Explanations have been sought whether the dredging
work in progress for the Sethu Samudram project would damage the bridge of the
epic age.
When the suit came up for hearing, it was argued that the dredging work in the
area where the ancient Ramar bridge was located would destroy the ancient symbol
of link between India and Lanka. Hence the dredging work should be given up in
the location.
It was also said
the bridge was revered by the Hindus since time immemorial and has a great
traditional and historical value.
When the Uttar Pradesh government wanted to go ahead with the Taj corridor
scheme on the banks of river Yamuna, it was barred by the Supreme Court on the
ground that it would threaten the historic Taj Mahal. Likewise, the Delhi Metro
Rail route had to be changed when the older scheme was considered as dangerous
to the Qutub Minar.
Subsequently, notices were sent to the State and Central governments for their
response. The case has been adjourned to 12 January.
It may be noted that tradition has it that a bridge was constructed during the
Ramayana period for war with Ravaneswaran by the forces of Sri Rama.
The age-old
belief was recently validated as true by the graphic satellite images of the
premium American aeronautics and space research agency, NASA. The images
released by it revealed an ancient bridge, which linked Rameswaram with Sri
Lanka. The length of the bridge was found to be 30 km and the breadth 3 km.
Meanwhile, the AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa and some fishermen's associations
have also been opposing the Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project (SSCP) saying
that the project would destroy marine ecology in the Bay of Bengal and deprive
the fishermen of their livelihood.
The Rs 2400 crore project envisages dredging of a navigation lane in the shallow
waters of the Palk Straits, enabling ships to move between eastern and western
ports of the country without touching the Sri Lankan coast.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had laid the foundation for the project on 2 July,
2005
Attachment C
Dalits have right
to enter Hindu temple: HC
Outlookindia.com
Hinduworld.com
CUTTACK, DEC 5 (PTI) : In a significant judgement, the Orissa High Court today
ruled that Dalits have a right to enter any Hindu temple.
"Every Hindu,
irrespective of his caste, has a right to enter any Hindu temple which is open
to other persons professing the same religion," a division bench of Chief
Justice Sujit Burman Roy and Justice M M Das observed.
The bench was
hearing a PIL filed seeking protection for Dalits for their entry into the
Jagannath temple at Keredagada in Kendrapara district.
The High Court's
ruling came in the wake of a severe caste conflict brewing up among the Dalits
and those belonging to the upper caste over the issue of entry of Dalits into
the 300-year-old Hindu shrine. The court also directed the Kendrapara district
administration to take appropriate action provided under the law if any law and
order situation arose at the temple site over the issue of entry into the place
of worship.
The court had
directed on November 24 last that the temple would remain out of bounds for all
except the priests and sevayats of the shrine.
The direction
had come after the district administration had moved the High Court seeking
imposition of status quo over the question of entry into the shrine in view of
the growing tension in the area.
A large number
of Dalits, backed by the Ambedkar-Lohia Vichar Manch, had earlier threatened to
forcibly enter the temple. They later had warned that they would stage a
'Satyagraha' outside the temple on November 26.
With the
disposal of the petition, the interim direction of November 24 stood vacated.
Hearing a batch
of intervening petitions along with the PIL, the court relied upon the
provisions made under Article 17 of the Constitution, which prevented the
practice of untouchability and the provisions of the protection of Civil Rights
Act, 1955, while disposing off the case.
The
Ambedkar-Lohia Vichar Manch, represented through its counsel Khirod Kumar Rout
as an intervener, told the court that Section 3 of the Protection of Civil
Rights Act, 1955 clearly stated that anybody practicing untouchability invited
punishment under the law.
2)
Orissa
Dalits Gain Temple Access
Hindu Press
International
HPI,
January 28, 2007
www.thestatesman.net
KENDRAPARA,
ORISSSA, January 28, 2007: After weeks of discord and strife that had threatened
civil order, the dispute over Dalits' rights to have darshan (view of the Deity)
at the Jagannath temple in Keredagada was finally settled today with the lower
caste Hindus marching their way to the 300-year-old shrine. "We are happy to
know that people have buried the caste-based practices and peace and harmony
have returned to Keredagada," Kendrapara collector Mr. Kashinath Sahu said. "It
is a victory of law over tradition. We appreciate the gesture of upper caste
Hindus for their tolerant attitude. The upper caste sabarnas no more hold the
view that the darshan by the Dalits would desecrate the temple," said senior
revenue officers who had rushed to Keredagada early morning today. ......
...There was a
sharp divide on caste line in this part of the state after the Dalits broke the
age-old social barriers and entered the local 300-year-old temple on 14
December. The inordinate delay in rebuilding a new entrance to the temple had
invited the wrath of the public and a section of Dalits threatened to embrace
other "tolerant" religion, specifically Buddhism.
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