Tuesday, November 23, 2004

My article on the UPA government taking over religious institutions

November 23

In the wake of the Kanchi atrocity, there have been a number of statements about taking over the Kanchi Matham. Presumably this would help the UPA government fund its Don Quixote projects. Well, there are very few Hindu institutions that are not already being sucked dry by the government via Devaswom boards and so forth.

What, however, about all those Christian and Muslim entities that are untouched by the government? The Christian churches collectively are the second largest landowners in the country, second only to the government. Imagine how much money taking them over will produce! I positively drool.

Just the churches in Trivandrum can probably cure the Kerala government's chronic deficit. And there are huge amounts coming in: see http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitems.asp?ID=IER20030725140931&Page=R&Title=Kerala&rLink=0

And this is just the reported inflows.

Here is my article: http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/nov/22rajeev.htm

As to why the Kashmiris deserve all this money, them being generally bad boys, your guess is as good as mine.

Rajeev

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

In the wake of the Kanchi atrocity...I ask you again, Mr Srinivasan. Is the murder of a man an atrocity? Or the arrest of a man accused of being involved in that murder an atrocity?

As I said before, it's a good thing that many of the rest of us Hindus have a less warped sense of right and wrong than this.

Be well now.

Sudhakar Nair
sudhakar@easy.com

Anonymous said...

Rajiv:
Why cherry pick institutions there are a couple more in kerala which I would like to add to your list of government piggy bank. There is a temple in a small village near Thrissur called Guruvayur which could contribute enormously for that lofty cause. Also then there is another temple right in the middle of periyar wildlife sanctuary endangering the habitat of the ever thinning population of the Indian tigers, called Sabrimala. Those are just 2 of those which came up to my mind. I'm sure you can find plenty of others like that.

Regarding Christian institutions receiving foreign aid let me tell you something Christian institutions have done many good to the society like the numerous schools run by them all over kerala which might be one of the major factor in Kerala becoming 100% literate and its more likely that even you someone close to you might have gone to one of those institutions. So stop and think before you start chastising them.

In your last article in rediff you presumed the kerala minister guilty before he was proven so and was asking for his resignation How come you are changing your stance when it comes to your ATMOST HOLY Kanchi shankaracharya ( note that I'm not mentioning him as an ordinary cleric, to which also you opposed). I didn't see you opposing when CNN US edition portrayed Veerappan as the Indian Robin Hood ( http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/10/18/india.bandit/index.html ) instead of a ruthless bandit.

Satish Itty.

Anonymous said...

The morons are back again at Rajeev.There is no doubt that Missionaries have done a lot of good work in opening schools and thus education.But they also effectively manage to brainwash and convert(into hindu haters(or christians!) thro the course of this education!!This education doesnt serve any good to India in the long run.You bunch of self confessed liberal hypocrites will not sleep sleep till you get India back into Colonial Eurpean rule!

Anonymous said...

Mr Satish shamelessly forgets the fact that the Govt has stake in Sabarimala and Guruvayoor through Devaswom Boards and also in the appointments to these Devaswom boards. (FYI if you are interested ,please watch mohanlal movie 'Advaitham'). Speaking of ecology how can you forget the many unauthorized 'crosses' and churches which had destroyed the forests in Kottayam, Idukki (Thanks to Kerala Congress, a catholic party)? Even I studied in a Catholic school and not for free. I could study there only because both my parents were working! Missionaries know the business well. Nothing is free and they charge exhobitant fees. Probably help one or two students of their community alone. Right? And they have fully exploited the 'minority' rights in our contitution , knowling fully well that today they are not a minority at all.

Yes, Kerala is literate and the only industry which flourishes is Evangelism and sex tourism. Now with the Bishops controlling many private educational institutions, conversions are encouraged by even professors. Recently there was a news in Kerala Kaumudi, that priests from Sudan preaches in Govt Medical college, Thiruvananthapuram and 'forceful' conversion tactics are happening under the blessing of even our Bishops and Cardinals and even some ministers. If temples could be controlled by Devaswoms, why cant these Christian and Muslim institutions(with flourishing foreign funds) also be controlled? Is this a 'secular' state or even a democracy or is there equality in Kerala?

In all the major cities, we have huge churches, thanks to our British boses. Rajeev has very beautifully 'drawn' the Thiruvananthapuram city's heart. And if atleast 1% of their incomes are given to the poor, today thiruvananthapuram would be having no one below poverty line. But their agenda is to continue to loot us.

And today the high-handed interference of Kerala Bishops is well known and no one controls them (Dollar talks). They even interfere in govt decision making and arm-twist it in such a way to please only their community. AK Antony had to resign just because he told the truth - the organized might of 'minorities' involving in govt. machinery! Even the ministry is decided by the Bishops. This is the real truth in Kerala. Even the priests and assitants burn the altars and accuse Hindus of doing such things. Police is also controlled by these christian mafia. Yes today in Kerala , the real Verappans are our Bishops, Cardinals and Missionaries and their media like Manorama and Deepika

Ram

Anonymous said...

Ram
Pardon me for being forgetful of the fact that Government is taking all the money from your devasom boards, maybe you guys should put some traction on all those immensly bend down spines and stand up against the government and take back that devsom boards. For that first you have to stop all the infightings and all the caste wars and stand united. I'd completely support such an effort to take back all the temple administrations from governments. I truly believe that religion and government should be completely free of each other.

You said you went to a catholic PRIVATE school because your parents were hard working. Well there are also numerous schools where they teach you for free run by christina and other groups. I'm wondering if your parents had any special interest in giving all that money to the catholic church by sending you there. Why is that your parents think your future is secure in the hand of a catholic priest or nun? Or is the fact that its really hard to find a school giving similar standard of education being run by NSS or Chinmaya or any of those similar trust? Of late this is changing and thats good.

Dont think that I support all the nasty politics being played by the chirstian churches Im ashamed myself of the fact that my church itself spents a major portion of its income paying a bunch of lawyers for overpowering another church. That money could have been put to much worthier causes. At the same time do not forget the fact that NSS, SNDP, NDP and all those organizations arent any better either they all play the same games.
Satish Itty

Anonymous said...

Satish,
This particular school was near to my home and having central syllabus, so we chose that. [The so called NSS or chinmaya are less in kerala and they are in remote places and how many such institutions are there now? ] Other than getting some good friends, I dint find any thing special about that institution. In fact I could understand the nepotism of certain teachers to their own community students!

Also you should understand that the education ministry has been kept by the Christians and Muslims ever since Kerala was born! And they used to give approvals only to their communities as we see it even today (by the Muslim league plunder of that ministry giving sanctions to hundreds of madrasas and appointment of uneducated mukris in govt. offices!). Remember NSS and SNDP was totally discriminated by the early education minister of Kerala congress - Joseph. This is reflected in the lower number of NSS or other similar schools.

Yes, I agree with you Hindus need to organize and get united breaking all the caste barriers. Otherwise, Kerala Hindus would be t'rrow's kashmiri pundits. But can we deny casteism is not present in Christianity or Islam. Dalit Christians are very badly treated by our rich high caste bishops. Or how many dalit bishops are there? Same is the case with Islam.

Ram

Anonymous said...

Ram:
Lets not deny the fact the all the Christians and Muslims are descendants of converted Hindus and hence they took the caste system to all their religions they went to. What we need is socio-religious reforms to get rid of the caste system. So in that sense caste system is more a social problem that religious problem like slavery and polygamy. And this is the golden egg laying goose for the politicians of all religions who keep exploiting it for their own personal gains.

You said "The so called NSS or chinmaya are less in kerala and they are in remote places and how many such institutions are there now? ". That's exactly my point why don't Hindu organizations start QUALITY educational institutions like Christians do? Maybe they don't find that a cause worthy enough. I am fully aware of that fact that these kind of institutions are not charitable institutions, they are Profit making enterprises selling education as a commodity. But then there are more than enough people like my and your parents who see value in that and are willing to pay exorbitant fees for that commodity. To start one of those private central schools you do not need any government approvals you just need the seed money to finance the project.

Also most of the time when Joseph was education minister he was under K Karunakaran the most pious Hindu congress stalwart or so he pretended to be. So If Hindus had a will they could have definitely found a way. Hey but then they were busy with their own fights between NSS and SNDP and couldn't get their act together. So don't just blame the Christian education ministers.

I too went to one of above mentioned Christian central schools and I too had many friends who were Hindus and Muslims and just because they were studying in those schools they had to attend bible classes. Although nobody was forced or coerced to convert to Christianity looking back now I think that was a great injustice. Nobody asked them whether they were interested in it nor did they have any alternative classes teaching Hinduism or Islam. If Hindu institutions had started enough schools they would have had similar classes teaching Vedas or Upanishads and Hindus would have had a chance to grow up learning the values of their religion.
Satish Itty

Anonymous said...

I appreciate your open comments in the last paragraph. Hindu kids are not privileged to learn the values of hinduism except from Balarama, Amar Chithra classics etc. Then again, that's the beauty of religious freedom, nothing is imposed upon us as in Madrasas or Bible classes. But true, the big disadvantage being the lack of 'one-ness' in the religion. Fortunately, we see many quality hindu educational institutions coming up slowly. Slow because, they dont get the dollar bounty as our Missionaries. And the major state wealth is also with the 'minorities' as in recent govt. reports!

Karunakaran is another moron who prays at Guruvayoor often and had tried to plunder the Guruvayoor devaswom more than once (as in 1981 when he tried to loot away 2 crores in the name of treasury crisis). Yes we need to purge these kind of corrupt 'immortal'?? souls and his future generations.And it was he(together with marxists and manorama) who was instrumental in bringing an unwanted nair-ezhava rift in the govt offices (he exterminated NDP-SRP with the help of manorama) by his nepotism. Hindus were stupids( without getting organized) to fall flat in these traps set up by Karunakarans and Marxists.

But now the SNDP and NSS have understood the realities. Their main problem was in the reservations, which anyway is totally hi-jacked by the muslims.(Muslim league with 7% vote-share controls 20% of ministry). So they have to unite and get organized or get wiped off. But still I dont understand, when a Hindu minister brings up some new policies( esp in liberalzied liquor policy which would have helped employment as well as state revenue instead of consuming spurious methylated spirit), the main wine consumers-bishops and cardinals are always barking to thwart it. Dont they want the state to develop? Or dont they want the hindu minister to get the credit? The only department a hindu minister can handle without any religious interference is Devaswom ministry in kerala! What Swami Vivekananda told is true even today - 'Kerala is a lunatic asylum'. It still is.
Ram