Hinduism
Government Incentives to Conversion – Hindus Must Resist
Dt: 2/2/17
Government Incentives to Conversion – Hindus Must Resist
Dr T.H.Chowdary*
On the occasion of the Christmas celebrations the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh announced that he has decided to increase the subsidy to Christians making pilgrimages to Jerusalem from Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 40,000 per person and the government’s grant (through the A.P State Christian Minority Finance Corporation) for the construction of Churches would be increased by three times .
2. In his own name as Chandranna Kanulakalu, clothes and other gifts were distributed to Christians. For the Muslims he promised the construction of Haj House (Rs. 10 cr plus) and two Urdu Universities besides Shadi Khanas and Urdu Ghars and a grant of Rs. 50 lakhs for a mosque . All these monies are from the tax revenues of the people of Andhra Pradesh . 96% of GOAP’s revenues come from Hindus .
3. There are as yet no Telugu University and no Telugu Academy in Andhra Pradesh as both of them had accrued to Telangana. But there would be Urdu Universities and Haj Houses.
4. There are thousands of temples which are closed. Many are crumbling but all temples with incomes above certain limit only are under the management & administration of the Government of Andhra Pradesh. The offerings that Hindus make to their gods and goddesses in those temples are treated as the revenue of the government and administered by it . The trustees for these temples are the party men and financiers of the parties which run the government. No qualifications seem to be set . They are chosen entirely by the will of the single person, the Chief Minister. There is no verification of antecedents of these
people. Persons who like those in whose homes were found 90 kgs of gold and Rs. 100 cr worth of cash become trustees to the prestigious TTD Board. Those who run wine shops and finance the Chief Ministers have become chairpersons of the TTD. The Common Good Fund from out of the temple monies is administered in the sole discretion of the Chief Minister. Some of them were Christians. Non- Hindus with false certificates of SC are appointed as Executive Officers of temples. About 25% of those working in Endowment Department not as pujaris but as assistants , clerks, inspectors etc., are converts to Christianity but who have managed to get the caste certificates as SC and ST Hindus . These are acting as sappers and miners of the conversion gangs /missionaries, conspiring and assisting the alienation of temple properties and wealth and the allotments of shops on the temple lands to non-Hindus .
5. There is no publication in the nature of annual report about the activities and achievements of the Endowment Department and TTD and the temples under their management. In short, the Hindu temples and resources and their wealth are ravaged by the party chiefs who gain power and run the government . All this is in contrast to the Churches and Mosques of Christians and Muslims which are left entirely free to do whatever they want including the issuance of fatwas and encyclicals that the men of their faiths should not vote for so and so party and should vote for such and such parties and candidates. This freedom is denied to the functionaries the Archakas and the E.Os and other staff of Hindus temples . It means that while the predatory religions can flourish from grants from government from the taxes that Hindus pay, the Hindus in the functioning and management of temples (EOs and Archakas ) are gagged .
6. The situation is no better in Telangana either. That Chief Minister had promised Rs.40 cr for an International Islamic Center ; a Rs. 20 cr Welfare Center for poor Muslims ; a Rs. 5 cr Rubath (Guest House) for Muslims visiting Ajmir ( the Nizam built such Guest House in Mecca for the Nizam’s States’ Muslims going on Haj to Mecca); Rs. 1500 per month for Mullahs and Muezzins and salaries for teachers in Muslim religious schools madrasas, which teache Quran and Arabic; hundreds of Gurukulas for Muslims ; a separate Selection Board for Muslims ; a Christian House and so on. Telangana also subsidises Christians’ pilgrimages and construction of Churches from the state budget.
7. It is clear that by all these gifts from the tax monies of Hindus to Christians’ & Muslims’ institutions and persons, there are government’s incentives to Hindus to convert to non-Hindu religions and get more and more welfare, reservations, foreign feasts , priests, kanukalu, foreign studies, clothes.
8. Hindus shall not suffer this exploitation of the temples and their wealth for gaining political power through minority votes. We should demand :
· A White Paper from the government’s Endowment Department regarding the temple properties, their wealth, staff, the annual income, expenditure, how trustees are selected, how and for what the CGF is utilised, and how non-Hindus are patronised and fed and remunerated out of Hindus monies and so on.
· Just as the minorities are organising and offering their votes only for those who support their religion- based demands, Hindus must vote for those people who will not misuse their monies and their temples to gain votes, get power and defalcate the temple wealth.
8. The Bharatiya Dharma Rakshana Samakhya has been highlighting the injustice done to Hindus, their temples and their monies by politicians seeking the minorities’ votes, always in violation of the constitution’s requirement that governments have to be secular, not favouring some religions which are predatory upon Hinduism and being indifferent to and exploitative of Hindus to humour the minorities.
9. We compliment the Government of Andhra Pradesh for allowing the Endowment Department to take every year a hundred thousand Dalits, Girijans and poor Hindus to seven temples on a conducted expense -met tour and from Darshans. While government promotes and funds the pilgrimages of Christians & Muslims , why should the Divya Darshan expense be met only from Hindu temples’ resources ? Government of Andhra Pradesh must fully reimburse the expenses incurred by the TTD & Endowment department on Divya Darshan. (1006 words)
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