In Jan 2007 the Communist Government of Kerala announced an ordinance with 33 suggested amendments to amend the Travancore – Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions Act 1950. On Feb 4th 2007 the Governor R.L.Bhatia signed the Ordinance and in a stroke made the Devaswom boards a cashbox for the bankrupt Communist government to loot at will. The Ordinance No 5 of 2007 named The Travancore-Cochin Hindu Religious Institutions (Amendment) Ordinance 2007 was signed by the Governor signed the bill despite more than 70 Hindu organisations urging him not to do so. All these organisations had asked the government to consult the Hindus before making these amendments but this was totally ignored. One of the reasons for this was ‘there are allegations of corruption.’
The Constitution of the Board was based on the Covenant entered in to by the Maharaja of Travancore in May 1949 and concurred and guaranteed by the Government of India. The Board comprises of President and two Members, the President and one Member is nominated by the Hindu members of the Council of Ministers and the other Member from the Hindu Members of State legislature. The term of the President and Members is for a period of four years.
Some of the destructive amendments which enable the government to transform the board into a Government department are as follows :
1. The original period of tenure of the board was four years and this was guaranteed by the Government of India in May 1949; this tenure is reduced to two years and as the two years have lapsed the present board is dissoved.
2. The criteria of the Board members has been changed to ‘three Hindus, out of which one will be a woman member and one member from Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe’. The current candidate for the post of Devaswom boardpresident is Shri Kalanjoor Madhu, a person close to the CM Shri Achudanandan. A Janata Dal candidate Shri Veerendrakumar of Janata Dal (a Hindu hater) has also staked claim to the post of Member of the Board. The third post is likely to go to a CPI candidate.
3. The Devaswom commisioner shall submit report to the government once in three months; if the government finds that the actions by the board is not in accordance with it’s rules it will direct the board to comply with the Governments’ directions. (The Government can alter or stop any ritual of the temple or make any changes under this amendment. – Editor)
4. The board may constitute a Temple Advisory Committee for a particular temple to ensure participation of devotees and local people. (‘Here ‘local people’ will mean the Communist party cadre, many of who are already in many local temple commitees. In one of the temple utsavs managed by Communists a procession was taken in which the deity’s photo was on one side and a photo of Sania Mirza in a short dress was on the other side. Protests by devotees evoked threats from these Communists – Editor)
5. Jobs in the Board to be via recruitment under Kerala Public Servive Commision . (As KPSA does not have a rule which says that only Hindus are to be recruited, under this rule a large number of non Hindus will get employment in Devaswom board, whose rules say that only Hindus are to be employed. Yet another backdoor entry for anti- Hindus! – Editor)
6. Male members of the board to be above 50 and female member to be above 60. (The earlier stipulation was 35 years. The government ‘s plan to enrol members who are beyond their peak and who will be puppets in their hands! – Editor)
The treacherous Communists had never mentioned anything about these changes in their election manifesto while campaigning; it was their secret agenda to do so after coming to power. For Hindus the only option left is a dharmic revolution!
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