Hindu Janjagruti Samiti has opposed the two-day ‘Temple Summit’ to be hosted by Shree Siddhivinayak temple trust from tomorrow.
The event is to be inaugurated by Union Tourism Minister Renuka Choudhary at a five-star hotel in Central Mumbai.
Addressing mediapersons here, Samiti’s national spokesman Durgesh Samant alleged that the five-star culture had ‘insulted’ the sentiments of Hindu devotees and the ”event was a waste of devotees’ offerings.” He said Hindu sentiments have been hurt over allegations in the media on how money offered by devotees to the Government-managed temples is used to please politicians. The temple trust is now organising a temple summit in a five-star hotel spending Rs 16 to 17 lakh. He alleged that this shows ”utter disrespect” to the teachings of Hinduism and emotions of the devotees.
Mr Samant demanded that political appointments on temple trusts should be stopped and awareness should be created among Hindus for raising demand that the Government give-up control over temples.
He said the Samiti activists will protest outside the venue during the summit.
Meanwhile, the summit, being organised by the Siddhivinayak temple trust, will deliberate on the measures of promoting temple tourism, management of crowd in temples and disaster planning.
The organisers have invited the CEOs and chief functionaries of all major temple trusts managing holy temples all over the country.
”The theme of the summit is to provide a common platform for discussion, where the managements of these temple trusts could share their experiences, vision and find solutions for the commonly faced challenges,” trust CEO Sanjay Bhagwat said in a statement here.
