Image via WikipediaThis issue had been raised by late Prabodhankar Thackeray, social reformer and father of Bal Thackeray, who had said that if we remove all gods from the temples in our country, there is huge wealth in the empty temples that can be used for public good. Even P Chidambaram recently mentioned about the crores of rupees that are donated to these temple trusts.
It is right on the part of Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev to make efforts to bring back black money stashed abroad, but they must also fight to recover the hidden wealth in our country. If the daily donations of these big temples are taken into account, nobody knows how this wealth is being used.
India is the topmost buyer of gold and no other country in the world can compete with it. If the amount of gold that the people of our country possess is gauged, we can top the list in the world. Not only gold but there is a huge amount of Rs500-Rs1000 that is stashed in form of black money in our country. All this is nothing but black money.
The Jagannath Temple in Puri is the biggest landlord in the country with crores of acres of land in their name. The known figures of the wealth that these temple trusts own are just the tip of the iceberg. One cannot even imagine how much unaccounted wealth is in possession of these trusts.
This wealth is created by exploiting people’s faith and devotion, so ultimately it is national wealth and must be used for public benefit. The elected trustees should use this temple wealth for proper purposes and must be transparent in disclosing their accounts to the general public. As a temple trust, they must have no reason to hide their transactions and must disclose them in public domain.
BG Kolse Patil,
former high court judge
Our government cannot be trusted with enormous wealth
The money should definitely be used for public benefit, but the management of wealth should remain with the trusts only. These trusts should be brought under the Right To Information (RTI) Act, 2005, which will make them transparent. The money should definitely be given to the poor and the needy as there is no other use for such an enormous wealth for a religious institution.
As far as I know, many organisations like the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple use their wealth for charity and also help the community. We cannot simply trust the government with such enormous wealth considering the recent cases of Commonwealth Games and 2G scams. The government is the most corrupt institution in this country. Neither do they use the tax money properly, nor is there a good reason for trusting them with more wealth.
Ultimately, the most important thing to keep in mind is that the wealth donated to religious institutions only belongs to the devotees and these trusts or the government are simply meant to serve the people in need.
Pratik Limbore,
IT professional
Make temple trusts accountable to both public and government
Temple wealth must be used for social benefit. The money should be given to charities either through the government or through NGOs. The legal framework should also consider higher taxes and transparency for the trusts operating presently.
Currently, these religious trusts are not into charity so the government should distribute these funds among the needy. The trusts should also be categorised depending upon the amount of funds they receive. This wealth should be looked strictly as public wealth.
Besides, it should also be made accountable to the public and the government.
Shreelekha Kakade,
college student
Using public donations in the right way is every trust’s responsibility
In Hindu tradition, we treat our deities as living beings, who own wealth in form of gold, land or money, which is entrusted to the organisation that runs the trust. In true sense, these trusts are charitable organisations, which receive donations from devotees. It is wrong to say that these trusts do not use this money for public benefit, because they run so many public utility facilities like hospitals and schools.
The money stashed in Swiss accounts is black money whereas the temple treasure is not black money. If the state or the Centre is given the right to this temple wealth, then it will obviously go to the Swiss banks, so the management of temple wealth should not go into the hands of our politicians under any circumstances.
Management of this wealth must always remain with the trust because they are doing a good job of using this wealth for social causes.
If these trusts are using this money for commercial purposes or have invested in mutual funds or stocks, then it is wrong. We must check whether they are using the returns on these investments for charity.
The donations that these temples receive are an expression of devotion of the devotee and putting it to right use is every trust’s responsibility.
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